


Force of Magic

by MoonviewRising



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types, The Dragon Prince (Cartoon)
Genre: Costs of war, Cross-Posted on FanFiction.Net, Dark Magic, F/M, Implied/Referenced Torture, Magic, Multi, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Racism, Torture, Trauma, War
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-10
Updated: 2021-03-05
Packaged: 2021-03-14 07:00:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 14
Words: 32,656
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28666605
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MoonviewRising/pseuds/MoonviewRising
Summary: Trezac Navo'x is one of the last remaining Jedi after Order 66. Crash landing on a planet filled with a force the natives call "magic", he joins two royals and an elven assassin on their quest to return an egg thought to be destroyed in order to prevent all out war. The real challenge will be handling what hides in the shadows of the Dark Side trying to stop them.
Relationships: Callum & Ezran (The Dragon Prince), Callum/Rayla (The Dragon Prince), Claudia & Soren (The Dragon Prince), Harrow/Sarai (The Dragon Prince)
Comments: 4
Kudos: 35





	1. Fire in the Sky

**Author's Note:**

> So, this story idea and the OCs in it were given to me by Gabeherndon308 over on Fanfiction.net, whom I’ve been working with to get this project going. As I’m sure you’ve noticed, this is a Star Wars and Dragon Prince crossover. I don’t own either one of these. Any ways, I’m sure you’d all like to see what this is all about.
> 
> Bold italics is narration
> 
> Regular italics is flashbacks
> 
> /comms/

**_A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away, the Galaxy was in chaos. The Jedi Order had fallen at the hands of Darth Sidious by having the clone troopers and his apprentice Darth Vader through Order 66._ **

**_But, a few Jedi still remain. One of which, is a young Padawan by the name of Trezac Navo’x. Splitting away from his master, he travelled to a planet on the far reaches of the Outer Rim. A planet filled with the force by which the locals refer to as Magic. A world, known as Xadia._ **

Thunder rumbled over the kingdom of Katolis, lightning flashing in the sky giving the outline of a vast city with a large palace in the center. Inside said palace, a man with greying brown hair stood by the window watching the storm in an effort to ease his frustrations over the infernal object covered by a tarp just a few feet away. No matter what spell he did, no matter which incantation he cast, the secrets of that infernal mirror would refuse to come to the light.

He watched as lightning spread out across the clouds. It was always amazing to watch the power of the sky. To watch the winds ripple over the earth, for the rain to fall from high above, and for the beautiful and destructive power of lightning to crackle over the darkened skies, spreading out in intricate patterns only visible for a split second.

It really was a pity humans couldn’t wield that power without the aid of a primal stone. But that’s why they had dark magic, to wield the power the dragons and elves held so tauntingly above their heads for centuries.

Lightning flashed in the sky, nearly blinding the High Mage of Katolis. The glass vibrated at the responding clap of thunder, and he looked out. This storm was likely going to get worse before it got better.

Grey eyes turned back up to the sky to watch for the next bolt and landed on a dull glow coming through the clouds. Frowning, his brows furrowed as he watched it get brighter. That wasn’t lightning…what was it?

The answer turned out was a fireball falling from the sky. Eyes widening, a pale hand pressed up against the glass and watched the flaming object crash into the forest just outside of the city. Grabbing his staff, he ran through the halls, skipping up steps of the spiral staircase and slamming his fist on the door, ignoring the surprised exclamations of the guards. “KING HARROW! KING HARROW!”

On the other side of the thick doors, he heard shuffling, and the door opened, revealing a disgruntled man with dark skin, a beard, and long hair tied back in intricate braids. “Viren? Do you know what time it is?” he grumbled looking towards the window. “It’s tomorrow.”

“I am aware of the time,” Viren answered. “But it’s an emergency!”

“Did something happen to the boys?” Harrow said.

“They’re fine. But something crashed just outside the city, in the forest. It was a large ball of fire. It could be an attack from the elves!”

Harrow rubbed his eyes tiredly. “Are you sure that it’s not just a fire caused by the lightning?”

“Yes! It was a fireball that fell through the clouds and into the forest! I swear!” Viren exclaimed. “Have I ever led you wrong?”

King Harrow merely raised an eyebrow.

“Ok, ok, don’t answer that!” Viren waved his hands. “Please Harrow, there’s something out there. I know it.”

The king sighed, rubbing the bridge of his nose. “Let me get changed and gather the men.”

-.-

“Viren,” Harrow grumbled swinging up onto his horse, “I swear if you wake me up this early again, I’ll execute you.”

“Good morning to you too Harrow.”

“So…are we going?” Soren called looking only half-awake.

Viren nodded, “Yes, we should get moving. We don’t know if this storm is going to get worse.”

“Great.”

Kicking their horses into gear, they rode out into the storm towards the pillar of the dark smoke rising up into the storm clouds above. Branches waved wildly in the wind, some occasionally breaking and snapping off onto the muddy ground as the troupe galloped through the darkened woods. The only light came from the burning object ahead and from lightning flashing above, the rains having doused their torches soon after they left.

Slowing their horses to a stop, they ground tied them and carefully pulled out their blades, trying to be as silent as possible in order to not alert whoever, or whatever had crashed in their kingdom. Fortunately, the sounds of the storm covered the rustling they made as they approached the glowing light of the fire. They crouched down in the brush, waiting for the King’s orders as they surveyed the situation.

What they saw stunned them.

It was unlike anything they’d ever seen. It looked like a kite children would play with as they ran through the town, but, it was made completely of metal. Bits and pieces were scattered around what used to be a clearing, large craters and flames surrounding the strange objects.

There was a loud crack, making all of them stiffen in alarm as they raised their weapons towards the object. It sounded like glass, like cracking glass.

The troops glanced between each other in confusion. There was no way that was glass…right?

The cracking sound continued and everyone ducked behind their shields as the dome-top of the crashed thing broke apart, sending shards of glass flying around the clearing and implanting themselves in trees, the dirt, and narrowly missing several of the men.

Peering up from behind their shields, they watched with wide eyes as a young, clearly human, man crawled out of the broken dome. There was a cry of pain as he tried to stand up, sliding down the metal hull and collapsing on the ground. He tried to get up, his arms shaking under the strain before he collapsed again.

Harrow emerged from his hiding spot, ignoring his high mage’s protests as he knelt down beside the unconscious stranger. Green eyes widened as he took in the appearance of the new arrival. He had brown hair just brushing his chin, pale skin, and a set of red-colored robes; but, what was most noticeable to the King, was the fact he couldn’t have been much older than his own son, Callum.

“King Harrow! Back away from him!” Viren demanded grabbing the ruler’s arm and yanking him back.

Ripping his arm out of the High Mage’s grip, he narrowed his eyes at the dark wizard, “He’s a child Viren!”

“I can sense his power, Harrow. He’s dangerous!”

“He’s injured!”

“We don’t know his motives! I say we eliminate the problem here and now!” Viren growled as his eyes flashed.

“For the last time, I am not killing a _child,_ Viren!” Harrow snapped, picking the unconscious boy off the ground. “One of you ride ahead, get the Court Physician.”

Nodding, a young guardswoman, swung up onto her horse quickly turning around and riding off as the others moved to help the King onto his horse with the strange boy.

-.-

Green eyes slowly opened as they adjusted to the bright lights streaming through the windows. Blinking a few times, they focused on a grey, stone ceiling above. This is so not where he passed out.

Sitting up, he raised an arm squinting against the harsh lights as he took in his surroundings. He was in a bed, wearing a set of silken clothes that had to either be pajamas or very fancy medical clothes. The room itself was fairly bare, his clothes were piled in a corner on a chair by an empty desk, there was a dresser, a nightstand, and a wooden door.

There was a click as something unlocked and the young man sprung to his feet settling into a fighting stance watching as the door began to open. A tall, dark skinned man walked in, wearing ornate clothes and a crown.

Green eyes a few shades darker than his own flickered to the bed, filling with surprise before they shot to him. The man visibly relaxed, a smile settling on his face. “Well, hello there. The doctor wasn’t sure when you’d be waking up. That was some accident you had.”

The young man watched him warily for a moment before lowering his stance. From what he could tell, the crowned man was being genuine and currently bore him no ill will. Good. The last thing he needed were the Sith finding out where’d he’d gone.

“Allow me to introduce myself: I’m Harrow, King of Katolis. And you might be?”

A king, well that explained the crown. “Trezac Navo’x, Jedi Padawan,” he answered.

Harrow smiled widely, “Welcome to Katolis Trezac. Now, as much as I’m sure you want to rest, there are a few questions we have before you can be let to roam around the kingdom.”

Trezac rolled his eyes, obviously. Since when were there never questions would he have to answer? “I figured as much,” he grumbled crossing his arms defensively. “What do you want?”

“How about we ask each other questions?” Harrow offered taking a chair and casually sitting down leaning his arms on the back. “This way we can get to know each other?”

“Sure.”

“Great,” the King smiled again. “Now, we found you in a crashed object in the forest, what was that?”

“A ship,” Trezac replied, “well, a spaceship. It allows me to travel through the stars, which is how I got here. My turn, where am I?”

“You’re in my kingdom, Katolis, but more specifically, you’re in my palace. We brought you here after we recovered out from your ship’s wreckage,” Harrow supplied. “Next question: You said you were a Jedi Padawan. What is that?”

Lifting a hand, Trezac summoned his lightsaber to him from across the room, making the ruler jump as it landed in his palm. He turned it on, letting the blue energy blade glow brightly for a minute before deactivating it. “This is a lightsaber. As Jedi we can wield these and use the force.”

“The Force?”

“It’s a cosmic energy, that binds everything together,” he attempted to explain. Yoda always said it better. “You really don’t know what it is? I can sense this planet’s full of it.”

Harrow nodded, “So you’re a type of mage. Yes, magic is quite common here in Katolis. In fact, our own High Mage would be happy to work with you. Now, I believe it’s your turn for a question.”

“It’s not magic, it’s the force.”

Harrow shrugged, “Perhaps, that’s merely our perspectives.”

Trezac nodded, he could accept that. Glancing down, he contemplated what to ask next, “You said this place was Katolis? Is it the name of your planet? Do you rule it?”

The King laughed heartily, making the young teen jump slightly in surprise. “No, no. Katolis is merely my kingdom; one of the many in this world. Our world is known as Xadia. My turn: You said you came from space? How is that possible?”

“It’s been possible for hundreds of worlds for centuries. I’ve been to more planets than I ever want to list. That ship your found me in is one of the ways we travel throughout the galaxy between worlds,” he explained watching the king warily. “You don’t seem very surprised by this?”

King Harrow shrugged, “I’ve seen plenty of strange things over the years. Rock monsters made of lava, dragons breathing lightning, magic changing inanimate objects into living things; being able to travel beyond the stars seems plausible. Especially considering your ship was unlike anything we’ve ever seen. Your Jedi civilization must be very advanced.”

“It…it was.”

“Was?”

Trezac crossed his legs, looking down. “We…we were betrayed. We were fighting a war, against the dark. Jedi, we’re peacekeepers, we protect light and represent good. Our enemies, the Sith, were leading a war against us. They…they did something, made our men turn on us, made brother turn on brother. I barely managed to get away. My ship, it was damaged in my escape, and I crashed here.”

“Well, you’re more than welcome to stay here,” Harrow offered. “I’m sure Lord Viren would value your input and skills, and there’s kids your own age here. Viren’s children, Soren and Claudia, and my own boys Callum and Ezran. They’d all be happy to have a new friend.”

“You really don’t—”

“I insist, it’s no trouble for us. Besides, you might be able to help Callum with his sword skills. I’m not sure Soren is proving to be the right teacher for him. If you don’t mind that is?”

“Well…I guess if it means I earn my keep,” Trezac agreed with a small smile.

-.-

“Callum, Ezran, I’d like you to meet our new guest, Trezac,” Harrow smiled introducing the young Padawan to his two sons.

Green eyes flickered over the two boys. The younger one was clearly related to Harrow, they had the same hair, same skin, the only difference was the eye color. The older boy didn’t look like either of them, he had green eyes like the king, but that was the only similarity. Perhaps, he was adopted? Or it was a blended family?

“Hi!” the small boy waved holding a…yellow, spotted, lizard thing. “I’m Ezran! This is Bait!”

“I’m Callum. Nice to meet you Trezac.”

The Jedi bowed, “Pleasure to meet you both. Thanks for letting me stay here with you.”

“It’s no problem Trezac,” Harrow reassured, patting his shoulder. “Trezac here is a Jedi.”

Callum and Ezran looked at each other then back at their father. “What’s a Jedi?” a new, slightly condescending voice asked as three more people entered the hall.

“Ah, Lord Viren, I was starting to wonder about you,” Harrow greeted inclining his head towards the brunette man with greying hair and a staff. “Trezac,” he motioned to the lord, “this is Lord Viren, he’s the High Mage of Katolis, and these are his children, Claudia.”

“Hi there!” a girl with long black hair and a matching dress with gold accents greeted with a shy wave.

“And Soren, the Captain of my Crownguard.”

“Yep, try not to let my brilliance overwhelm you,” the blonde said tilting his chin up.

“So anyways,” Viren coughed, “What exactly is a Jedi?”

“We’re intergalactic peacekeepers that use the force to drive back the dark side,” Trezac answered. “The Force is an energy existing throughout the galaxy that binds everything. In fact,” he narrowed his eyes, sensing something through the force, “several of you happen to be strong in it.”

“The force?” Soren questioned skeptically

“Ah, a special type of magic user,” Viren remarked stroking his beard thoughtfully. “I guess that would be expected, Claudia and I are mages. Which explains why your presence is so noticeable.”

The young man nodded, “Yes, but it wasn’t merely you two I was referring to,” he motioned to the two princes, “I can sense it from them as well.”

“Cool! We get to learn magic,” Callum grinned. “Hopefully I’m better at that than sword fighting!”

Viren stepped forwards, his eyes narrowing. “Perhaps at another time. We should learn more about this magic first. Perhaps you’d be willing to show us?”

Trezac nearly smacked his forehead. The Force wasn’t magic! Pulling his lightsaber off his belt, he held it out, using the force to lift it into the air. It began to turn and he took a calming breath, stopping it and positioning it vertically before pressing the button, letting the blue blade flicker to life once again. Seeing he made his point, Trezac dropped it, the blade sheathing and plopping into his hand. “That good enough?”

“That was amazing!” Claudia exclaimed. “How did you do that? What spell was it? You didn’t even use any words! What is that thing? Is it a primal stone?”

“A primal what?”

The girl tapped her nose and ran off, leaving all of them confused.

“Uh…” green eyes flickered to the other members of the group, “is that normal?”

Lord Viren sighed loudly, “Unfortunately for her.”

“HERE!” Claudia exclaimed returning. She nearly tripped over her dress, wincing as she steadied herself and the blue orb in her hand. Lifting her hand in the air, blue lines began to trail from her fingers and a rune took shape. “Aspiro.”

She blew air into the rune and Trezac’s jaw dropped as a strong breeze ruffled his hair. “Wow.”

“I know right!” Claudia grinned. “This primal stone contains one of the six primal sources inside! A storm captured from the top of Mt. Kalik! See!” She shoved the stone into his hands, and Trezac looked inside, sure enough, there was a storm with clouds, lightning, the whole nine yards. “I can show you a few more spells if you’d like.”

“Sure, sounds great.”

-.-

On the bridge of a ship, a tall dark figure sensed a disturbance in the force. One that he hadn’t sensed in some time.

Footsteps came from his right and there was a loud gulp from the sniveling officer next to him. “L-Lord Vader. You have an incoming transmission from the Eleventh Sister and Twelfth Brother.”

Whirling around, the Sith Lord ignored the man’s yelp as he strode into the hologram room, glaring down at the two bowing figures. “Your report.”

/We’ve managed to kill three escapees hiding on Rhodia/ the female apprentice spoke.

“Good. Because now you two have a new assignment. I have sensed a disturbance in the force. The apprentice of Obi-Wan Kenobi lives. Find him, and end him.”


	2. Eye for an Eye

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: ok, next chapter! Remember, I don’t own TDP or these OCs. 
> 
> Flashbacks/dreams/visions are in italics
> 
> /comms/

“Lord Viren, King Harrow hasn’t risen yet!” the guards protested as the High Mage once again strode right into the King’s chambers. Walking to the windows he opened the curtains, allowing light to stream in and making Harrow’s bird squawk.

There was a groan from the bed. “Viren, didn’t I tell you if you ever woke me up this early again, I’d have you executed?” Harrow grumbled sitting up and glaring at the mage.

Viren cleared his throat, thinking back to last week’s conversation. “I’ll, uh, give you a moment.” Turning away, he walked onto the balcony, giving the king the privacy he needed in order to change.

“So what’s so important that you come into my bedroom risking your life like this?” Harrow asked walking out with his bird perched happily on his arm.

“Assassins.”

“I see,” Harrow mused carefully letting Pip walk onto his wooden perch set on the balcony for the bird.

“A scout discovered them on patrol just before dawn.”

“Well don’t look so grim,” the King smiled. “We’ve fought off plenty of assassins. Haven’t we Pip?” The bird whistled as he stroked its feathers.

Viren sighed, “It’s different this time. We believe they’re Moonshadow Elves.”

King Harrow’s teasing face turned grim. “Moonshadow Elves? How did the scout escape?”

“I don’t know. It was muddy, wet, dark; somehow he got very lucky.”

“The Crown Guard won’t be enough to hold them off,” Harrow stated. “Send for General Amaya and the Standing Battalion.”

“They’re too far, they won’t make it back in time.”

“What’s tonight’s moon?”

“Full.”

Harrow gave a bitter chuckle, “Of course it is.”

“With the Moonshadow Elves at the height of their power, no defense shall stand against them.”

“Then we won’t defend, we’ll attack,” Harrow growled. “We must find them today in the light of the sun and stop them before it’s too late.”

Now that was a plan Viren could get behind.

-.-

Trezac sat under the shade of a large tree in the courtyard mediating while Callum and Soren sparred. Well, more of Soren proceeded to beat Callum with a wooden sword trying to get him to understand sword fighting.

“Claudia!”

Opening his eyes, Trezac looked up and nearly yelped at the sight of the sorceress standing just a few feet away with a book in her hand looking just as confused. “Oh. Hi Callum!” she said turning to wave at the boy before looking back to him, “Hi Trezac. Is this tree new?”

“Relatively, it’s only been there for 300 years,” Callum replied.

He rolled his eyes and went back to mediating. Something told him he’d need peace of mind today.

“Prince Callum, Trezac Navo’x,” a woman in white robes said striding onto the courtyard, “the king needs to speak with both of you urgently.”

He young Jedi sighed and got to his feet, so much for a peaceful meditation.

-.-

King Harrow dismissed his counsel as his sons and the young Jedi entered the throne room, looking confused as to why they’d all been summoned. “Boys! You’re going on a trip! To the Banther Lodge!” the King said as they approached him.

“But it’s spring,” Callum said, “that’s the winter lodge.”

“Well, winter is coming, eventually.”

That made Trezac raise a brow. Why in the Force would they be going there _now_?

“What will we do?” Ezran questioned holding Bait. “Everything fun there has to do with snow and ice.”

“Maybe you can invent new versions to show Trezac using…dirt and rocks,” Harrow suggested. “You could build a dirt-man! Or, what about mud sledding?! That could be a thing!”

Neither prince looked thrilled at the idea, in fact, Trezac kind of agreed. Why waste all the time getting dirty? And he doubted it’d be easy to sled down mud, not if it hadn’t freshly rained.

Seeing the boys’ reluctance, Harrow turned firm. “Look, this is something I needed you to do.”

“But Dad—”

“It’s decided,” he interrupted. “You three will leave before sundown, so go pack up. Trezac, stay, I wish to speak with you.”

The Princes nodded as Harrow escorted them from the room and closed the door behind them, turning back to face the young Jedi. “There’s something else going on, isn’t there?” he prodded gently. He could sense it, something was wrong, very wrong. Fear and anger were prevalent throughout the majority of the place and the young ex-padawan couldn’t help but notice that things seemed to be tense.

“Assassins,” Harrow informed and he straightened.

“Do you know where they are?”

Harrow shook his head, “We’ve sent teams to search for them, they’ve been unsuccessful. That’s why I want you to go with the boys, you can protect them.”

“What about you?”

“Trezac, I’ve done terrible things. And it seems I will pay the price for those mistakes tonight. I’m not going to try and fight this,” he replied calmly. “Go pack your things. I want you and the boys to leave as soon as possible.”

“Yes sir.”

-.-

“Callum! We have to pack!” Trezac exclaimed stomping after the elder Prince.

“No! I’m going to help!” the stubborn teen replied grunting as he lugged his heavy shield towards the scouting party.

Hearing the two boys’ debacle, Soren groaned looking at them as they argued in the courtyard. He raised a brow as he took in the Step-Prince. “You look…terrific,” he interrupted, “but just so you know, that’s ceremonial armor, it’s three times as heavy and half as strong. Oh, but so shiny!”

Trezac pointed to Soren, “Thank you! See Callum, you aren’t equipped for this!”

“I don’t care,” the prince huffed shuffling to a horse and throwing his shield on its back. “I know what’s going on and I’m coming with you.”

The knight and padawan shared an equally annoyed look as the teen flopped onto the saddle. Raising a brow, the jedi gave a motion to Callum and Soren huffed. Seems like it was his turn to knock some sense into the Step-Prince. “You’re just a kid, Callum.”

“I’ll be fifteen in two months!”

“Oh, fourteen and three-quarters, wow!”

“Five-sixths,” Callum corrected finally managing to sit properly in the saddle. “Soren, he’s our king and he’s my father. It’s my duty to help him.”

“Technically he’s your step-dad, but I’m sure it’s similar,” Soren reminded taking a bite from an apple before looking at it in contemplation. “Think fast!”

Seeing the apple flying at him, Callum raised his shield, jumping when he felt something slam into. Startled, he scrambled back right off the horse. The armor-clad prince gave a cry, bracing for a very unpleasant impact.

Only it didn’t come. Opening his eyes, Callum yelped as he was floating in the air. Trezac moved his hand and the prince’s green eyes widened as gravity took over again, letting him flop onto the cobblestone courtyard.

“You were supposed to catch that,” Soren grimaced. “Nice save ‘Zac.”

“Come on,” the padawan said picking the boy up by his collar, we’ve gotta pack.”

Callum grumbled under his breath watching the scouting party leave.

-.-

Trezac frowned, debating on what to pack. He wasn’t entirely sure what all he’d need for this trip. And it wasn’t like he exactly had much to begin with. The most he had with him when he crashed were the clothes on his back, his lightsabers, a cloak, and some binoculars.

The young man paced glaring at the empty sack. Ok, he just needed to think like his master; what would Obi-Wan pack?

Well, they were going to the winter lodge, so he’d need the cloak. Not to mention he didn’t know how far it was, so food and drink pouches would also be necessary supplies. The binoculars would be handy for spotting threats while they travelled. He obviously wasn’t leaving his lightsabers, only an idiot would do that. That basically covered the survival materials.

Perhaps he could ask Claudia for more books to study the strange form of the Force on this world. Once they got to the lodge, he would have time to spare. It would be the opportune moment to continue his studies.

Shoving his materials in the sack, he turned on his heel and went to find the High Mage’s daughter.

-.-

He ended up finding her talking to Callum in the library.

“See this, it’s a Primal Stone. It uses magical energy from one of the six Primal Sources,” Claudia spoke showing Callum the stone she showed him when he arrived. “Look.”

“Wow. What’s inside?”

“It’s a storm, a real storm, captured from the top of Mt. Kalik.”

“You didn’t tell me that,” he interrupted and the mage smiled. “Well, it didn’t come up. Besides ‘Zac, you’re magic is way cooler.”

“It’s not magic.”

“You two are so lucky you get to learn magic,” Callum sighed handing Claudia back the stone.

“Sword fighting isn’t that bad,” Trezac defended.

“Cause you’re good at it. I’d trade places in a second.”

“We all have thing’s we’d rather do,” the padawan stated. “Claudia I was wondering—”

“THAT’S IT!” she exclaimed tapping her nose at Callum before running off.

“I don’t understand girls,” the prince slumped.

Trezac shrugged, “You know where any magic books are?”

“Uh…no?”

“Darn…You packed?”

“Yeah. Ezran’s still getting ready.”

He nodded, looking at the window. “We should go get him. It’s about time we left.”

Following his gaze, Callum nodded in agreement and both teens ran up the stairs, momentarily stopping by the Jedi’s room to grab his bag before they made it to Callum’s chambers. Trezac set the bag down, leaning against the wall as the elder brother knocked on the door separating the princes’ rooms.

“Ezran? It’s almost sundown, are you ready?”

No response came from the other side and the older sibling rolled his eyes, clearly annoyed with whatever antics the younger was getting up to now.

Crouching down, Callum forced the door for the glow toad open and peered inside. “Ezran?”

Trezac felt his friend’s panic spike. “What’s wrong?”

“Ezran’s gone!”

“He’s what?” he questioned pushing Callum out of the way and peering through the doggie door into an empty room. “You’ve gotta be kidding me.”

“Prince Callum.”

There was a startled yelp. “Oh hey! We’re all here, why wouldn’t we be here?!”

Trezac could feel the guard’s eyes on him as he started squeezing through the doggie door. “Uh…right. The King wishes to see you Prince Callum.”

“Oh perfect! But he could’ve seen us all if he wanted to!” Callum lied again and Trezac wanted to slam his head against the floor. He really was a horrible liar.

A lighter tread of steps walked away and he heard a heavy one step closer, probably the guard. “Jedi Navo’x…are you all right?”

“Fine. Ezran’s just up to some mischief and we need to get going,” he grumbled starting to shimmy inside the dark room.

“Good luck,” the guard said before leaving as the padawan continued to shove his way through the tiny door.

Dusting himself off, Trezac glowered. “Where’d you go ya little twerp?”

-.-

Seriously, how hard was it to find one ten-year-old prince?

Apparently, very, very hard. Trazac would have more luck getting a straight answer out of Master Yoda than finding this kid! Every time his force sense told he was close he’d enter a room and Ezran wouldn’t be there! It’s like the kid was a ghost!

Grinding his teeth, Trezac began searching behind one of the bookshelves in Lord Viren’s study. Maybe there was a secret passage, something he was missing.

The door burst open behind him and Trezac jumped in surprise on the amount of fear rolling off the newcomer. “LORD VIREN! CLAUDIA!” Callum’s voice exclaimed before two sets of green eyes met. The prince immediately dove behind the padawan, pointing at the door. “BEHIND ME!”

Seeing the assassin in the doorway, the young Jedi took a defensive stance in front of Callum, holding his lightsaber in warning. He didn’t want to activate it, but he would if she continued to be a threat.

Her violet eyes narrowed spotting him, flickering down to the object in his grasp. He could sense her apprehension, she knew there was something more to his weapon than a simple stick like most primitive planets thought. She probably was Force-sensitive too. “You don’t have to die,” she spoke roughly with an accent. “There’re only two targets tonight.”

“Two?”

“I’m here for the King, and I’m also here for his son, Prince Ezran.”

Green eyes widened, maybe it was a good thing Ezran made himself scarce. Callum, on the other hand, was floundering from shock. “You can’t! That’s not fair! How can you kill someone who’s done nothing wrong?!”

“Humans cut down the King of the Dragons, and destroyed his only egg, the Dragon Prince. Justice will not be denied.”

“If we’re following the ‘an eye for an eye’ justice thing, we’re gonna be left with a lot of blind people,” Trezac grumbled.

The Elvish girl’s eyes flared with anger. “That doesn’t matter! The Humans started this war! Now we’re ending it!”

With that, Trezac then did something that would’ve made the old Master Skywalker proud, “Fine then. “I’m Prince Ezran.”


	3. Shadow of Doubt

**A/N: hey everyone, back for another chapter! Remember, the OCs in this story belong to _Gabeherndon308_ , and I don’t own Star Wars or the Dragon Prince. **

**So, without further adieu, onwards to our epic tale of magic and adventure!**

Violet eyes narrowed and the assassin raised her sword. “I’m sorry about this, but I have to do this. I don’t want to but I have to.”

“Why?” Callum piped up peering out from behind the Jedi. “You know this is wrong.”

“An assassin doesn’t decide right and wrong, only life and death.”

“that’s very clever, but come on, really? How does this solve anything?” Callum said. “It’s like Trezac said, and eye for an eye will leave a lot of blind people.”

“The humans attacked us unprovoked! Now we’re attacking you, provoked,” she growled before the rest of her statement processed and her eyes narrowed as she raised her blade. “Wait…you said you were Ezran!”

“He was protecting me,” Callum said stepping out from behind Trezac with his hands raised. “Don’t blame him.”

“Callum!” Trezac hissed shoving the other teen behind him.

“Guys?” a new voice spoke and Trezac cursed. “Guys?”

“Go away,” the duo hissed at the wall.

“I found something.”

The elf raised a brow, looking at the painting, then at the boys. “Are you talkin’ to that painting?”

Callum chuckled nervously, “Uh, why would I do that? _Cause it’s not a good time_!”

Ancients this little idiot was going to get them killed.

“Why?” The painting swung aside and Ezran stood in the newly revealed doorway, holding a jelly tart his mouth. Blue eyes widened when he noticed the situation. “Callum? Trezac? What’s going on?”

There was an angry growl from the girl. “Which one of you is lying?!”

“Hey, how is this worse than you trying to kill us?” Callum countered.

“Have you met Bait?” Ezran asked holding his favorite pet up. “Say hello to my little friend.”

Trezac felt a surge of power coming from the small creature as it began to glow and he instinctively covered his eyes. Bright light filtered between his fingers and he heard the girl cry out, her blades clattering to the ground as she was blinded.

“Follow me, I have to show you something!” Ezran exclaimed.

Without missing a beat, Trezac snagged Callum’s arm, and pushed Ezran ahead, using the force to seal the painting shut behind them. He wasn’t sure how long that would hold the assassin, but right now his priority was getting the princes out of here and to the Banther Lodge.

“Ok, I haven’t been here long enough to know my way around this place, where are we going?” Trezac questioned.

“This way!” Ezran said, clutching Bait tighter as they ran.

Rolling his eyes, Trezac picked the little toad up and hoisted him under one arm. It would do them no good if Ezran got tired from carrying the little beast while they were trying to escape. At least he was used to making daring escapes with heavy supplies.

“YOU’RE ONLY MAKING THIS WORSE!” the assassin’s voice echoed after them.

Trezac cursed, she recovered faster than he hoped she would.

“Worse how?!” Callum retorted and the Jedi felt the urge to smack the elder Prince. Seriously, shouting at your attacker will help them find you!

“Here!” Ezran exclaimed skidding around a corner and leading them to a dead end.

“Callum, don’t shout back to her, that’ll lead her to us,” Trezac scolded before turning to Ezran. “Do you know where you’re going?!”

“Of course I do! It’s just time for a puzzle!” he said starting to mutter to himself as he began pressing the rocks in the wall.

They did not have time for this. “Let me,” Trezac grumbled waving his hand and the boys jumped as the proper stones moved down and opened the next secret passage.

“I really should just bring you with me for these escapades,” Ezran smiled.

“Run now, make game plans later!” Callum said as they began to leap down the stairs. Erzan raced to a candlestick, pulling down, revealing it to be a lever, triggering the passage to close.

None of them could deny the wave of relief that came through them.

Looking around the room, Trezac frowned. He could feel it, the Force. It was incredibly powerful here. Pulsing, almost like something alive. His gaze travelled to a pedestal of some sort, covered by a tarp. Was that the cause of the disturbance he was sensing?

“You sure she won’t be able to figure it out?”

“No way! It took me over a month to figure out that combination,” Ezran reassured.

The rumble from above, told them otherwise. “Get behind me!” Trezac commanded, grabbing his lightsaber from his belt as the elven girl came down the passage steps.

“How did you…?”

“I just pressed all the stones with the jelly handprints,” she smirked.

Curse Ezran and his sweet tooth.

“What is this place?”

“Stay back,” Trezac warned holding up the weapon. He didn’t want to activate it, but if she didn’t back down…

The girl’s eyes locked with his, and the padawan could feel the rage starting to roll off her. “Runaan was right. There’s nothing in humans worth sparing!”

Narrowing his eyes, Trezac activated his blade, illuminating the room with a dull blue glow. “You’ll have to get by me first.”

Violet eyes narrowed. “That shouldn’t be a problem.”

She lunged at him and Trezac thrust his hand out, using the force to toss her across the room. Flipping midair, she sprung off the wall and rolled back to her feet, looking more frustrated than before.

“Wait!” Ezran called out, interrupting the fight. “You need to see something.”

“I’m not fallin’ for that flashing frog trick again!”

“He’s a glow toad. And there’s no trick this time, please,” Ezran replied pointing to the very pedestal Trezac had been drawn to earlier.

“…Fine. Uncover it, slowly.”

“I can hear something, something alive,” Ezran said removing the tarp.

Under it, a glowing egg was revealed. Light pulsed from in sync with the pulses he felt rolling through the Force. This was it, this was the source of the disturbance in the room.

And apparently, the others picked up on this thing’s importance, if for a different reason. “It…it can’t be.”

“The egg, it wasn’t destroyed.”

“I’m guessing this is the Dragon Prince everyone’s been talking about?” Trezac questioned.

“Y-Yeah, we thought it was destroyed,” Callum stuttered. “What’s it doing here?”

“Probably nothing good,” Trezac frowned.

“This changes everything,” the elf said, lowering her blades. “I can’t believe it, if the egg lives…”

“Maybe it could stop the war,” Callum realized.

“He’s ok in there! I can feel it!” Ezran said and Trezac nodded.

“He’s quite the strong little guy. I can feel the power he’s giving off even now,” he commented.

“Then that means he’s healthy, good,” Callum nodded as the group crowded around the egg trying to figure out what to do.

“Here’s my question: If it was supposed to be destroyed, what’s it doing here?” Trezac questioned.

“Because my father saved it.”

They all turned, the elf and Trezac raising their blades as Claudia came down, holding the Primal Stone in her hand.

“Callum, Ezran, Trezac, get behind me. I can protect you from the elf,” she snarled.

“Your father didn’t save it! He stole it!”

“That’s a lie!”

“Then why is it here? Why did your father make everyone believe it had been destroyed?” Trezac demanded pointing his saber at her.

“My father took it to protect us, so the elves and dragons couldn’t use it against us.”

Trezac blinked a few times to process the statement. “It’s an egg.”

“He’s right. How can we use it?” the assassin agreed.

Claudia rolled her eyes, “Don’t play dumb. You know it’s a powerful weapon.”

By the Force, she was serious. “It’s an egg!” they both exclaimed.

Claudia’s gaze turned to Ezran and Trezac moved in front of her protectively. “Don’t be afraid. Just bring it here, and if she moves even an inch,” she waved her hand in the air, a glowing rune forming on her fingertips with lightning starting to spark off it. “Just bring that thing here.”

“It’s not a thing! It has a mother! And it needs to go back to her.”

Ezran nodded, pressing closer to Trezac. “She’s right. It want’s its mother.”

Trezac glanced behind him, his green eyes meeting Ezran’s own light blues. Reaching out with the force, he tried to sense if the elf was attempting to deceive them. He didn’t sense any trace of deception, and he shared a glance with her, finding her eyes to be filled with sincerity. Glancing back to Ezran, Trezac nodded. They needed to get this egg home.

“Follow me!” Ezran exclaimed separating from Trezac’s side as he and the elf sprinted down another passage.

“Don’t worry, I won’t hit Ez,” Claudia said raising her arm and Trezac grit his teeth, holding up his saber. While he’d heard about deflecting Force lightning with sabers before from his master, he’d never actually had the chance to try. It wasn’t an experience he was looking forwards to.

An experience he never got as Callum shoved Claudia aside, cuffing her to one of the chains in the room causing the Primal Stone to roll on the floor. “Callum! Trezac! What are you doing?!”

“The right thing, let’s go!” he ordered and he padawan took the lead as the pair ran after Ezran and the elf.

It wasn’t long before Trezac felt a surge from the Dark Side followed by the howl of a wolf. The young teen cursed. He should’ve seen it, he’d been so preoccupied in learning the Force on this world, trying to adapt to his new life, that he’d forgotten to see the alliance the users he knew had. Claudia, Viren, they were with the Dark Side.

“Keep going!” he ordered skidding to a stop. The lead shadow wolf growled and leapt at him. Raising his lightsaber Trezac attempted to cut through the animal, his eyes widening as his blade passed harmlessly through it. The wolf rematerialized and bit down on his leg, causing him to give a surprised cry and use the force to shove the beast back. He watched as the shadow reformed a few feet away and the wolf’s hacles rised as it prepared to attack again.

Knowing that this was a fight he couldn’t win, Trezac turned on his heel and ran, joining up with a bitten Rayla and the others at a dead end as the two wolves began to approach.

“I can’t stop them, they’re just smoke. My swords go right through them! I don’t suppose your light blade thingy does anything to them?!”

“Unfortunately, no. Neither does a Force push,” he said as they raised their blades watching the smoky animals warily. This battle was so not going in their favor.

“There might be something I can do, but I don’t know if I can do it!” Callum spoke up.

“What’re you waiting for? An invitation?!”

“Is this a guessing game? Just do it!”

The wolves raced towards them and Trezac held out his arm, trying to use the force to push them back. The smoky animals strained against his power, rematerializing closer and closer. It wouldn’t be long before they got in striking distance.

“Aspiro!”

A gust of wind nearly knocked the two warriors off their feet, sending the shadow wolves dissipating down the hall.

“I knew you had potential in the force, never thought you’d tap in so soon after years of not training it,” Trezac huffed, deactivating his blade.

“You never mentioned you were a mage,” the elf remarked.

“Who me? I’m not really anything.”

“You just did magic!” Ezran exclaimed.

“Yeah, that’s what a mage is,” the elf said pointing at the Jedi with her thumb. “Like this guy here; you’re a mage.”

Trezac sighed, here they go again. “It’s the force, not magic,” he corrected.

No one seemed to hear him over Callum’s excited exclamation. “I’M A MAGE!”

The elvish girl pressed a finger to his lips shushing him, “No one like a loud mage.”

“Sorry.”

“Let’s find a way outta here,” Trezac said leading the way down the passage.

“Look, I need you to give me the egg. I need to get it to the roof right away,” the girl said stepping in front of Ezran.

“What why?” the boy said holding the egg closer.

“You have to trust me.”

“You were just trying to kill us,” Trezac spoke up.

“Good times,” Callum said with a sarcastic laugh.

“Hey! I’m trying to help you! Any moment now others will be arriving, others like me!”

“Assassins,” Callum frowned.

“I need to show them the egg to stop them. Give it to me!” she exclaimed reaching for the egg and Trezac grabbed her hand, glancing at Ezran.

“Prince Ezran?”

The boy shook his head, keeping a tight hold on the egg, “I’ll take you to the roof.”


	4. Moonrise

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey everyone, hope y’all’re enjoying the story so far. Here’s the next chapter, as you can tell by the fact you’re reading this. Anyways the OCs in here are Gabeherndon308’s, not mine; I’m just the writer. And I don’t own the Dragon Prince.

“You’re here. I know you are.”

“Rayla,” Runaan spoke, causing the elf to turn around to look at her mentor as he balanced on the railing, “you defied me.”

“Runaan, you need to call off the mission.”

The man’s pale blue eyes widened and he hopped down, “You’ve lost your mind.”

“Please listen to me, I’ve found something: the egg of the Dragon Prince!” she pleaded.

“That’s impossible.”

“The egg wasn’t destroyed, it was stolen,” she told him. “Their high mage was going to use it for dark magic but the human princes found it and they’re only trying to help—”

“No,” Runaan interrupted, “Humans are liars. This is a trick and a trap. You’re a fool Rayla.”

“She’s not lying,” Trezac said stepping out, “and she isn’t a fool.”

Runaan’s eyes narrowed as he grabbed an arrow. “You will regret this.”

“Show him.”

Stepping out from behind the crates, Ezran held up the egg as Callum stood protectively over him. Across from them, the assassin stammered, levering his bow. “I-It’s beautiful.”

“How can we take vengeance for an act that never happened? You have to call it off.”

The Elvish man looked truly regretful as he gave a reply, “Rayla, you know it doesn’t work that way. We bound ourselves. There’s only one way to release.”

“Runaan, please,” she begged. “This is a miracle, a chance for peace!”

“The humans struck down the King of the Dragons! Justice won’t be denied. Give me the egg!”

“Callum, Ezran, Trezac, go.”

“But—”

“Just keep it safe,” Rayla said pulling out her blades.

Grabbing the Princes’ arms, Trezac lead them away from the battle. Trying to find a place to hide, somewhere the assassin or the mages couldn’t find them. They ran down into the courtyard and Trezac looked around, his gaze landing on a barrel by the cart of hay. He knew Ezran was fond of hiding in the cart, but Bait had a tendency to give them away. Picking the younger prince up, he used the force to remove the barrel lid, quickly putting Ezran inside with Bait. “Stay here.”

Before Ezran could protest, the barrel lid was sealed over him, the only sign he was there being the faint glow coming through the planks. At least it was less noticeable than the hay.

“You stay here with Ezran, I’ll go talk to the king,” Callum said.

“Why don’t you just call him Dad?” Ezran’s voice echoed from within the barrel, interrupting Trezac’s protest.

“He’s the King, and I’m his stepson.”

“I think he’d want you to, if you wanted to.”

“…I’ll be right back,” Callum said turning on his heel and sprinting towards the Castle.

Groaning, Trezac began to give chase. “Stay there!” he called back to Ezran, the last thing he needed was the younger prince to go galivanting off on his own.

Running up the stairs of the tower, Callum pushed past the guards while Trezac stayed back as Soren—hopefully—stepped up to talk some sense into the prince.

“Whoa there step-prince. The king’s busy trying not to die and stuff.”

Nope, Soren was still useless.

Behind the Crownguard, the door opened, revealing the High Mage of Katolis. “You should not be here,” Viren growled and Trezac stiffened. He didn’t like what he was sensing from the man: anger, bitterness, and many other feelings that would drag one towards the Dark Side. Though, perhaps it was too late for the mage, Claudia was falling well as it was, and Viren was her father…Trezac felt so stupid for not sensing it sooner.

“I know what you did,” Callum snapped, “you stole the egg of the Dragon Prince! We found it and we’re keeping it safe.”

“We?” Viren questioned, his gaze flickering to Trezac for a moment.

“The king will have you in shackles when he finds out about this!”

“What makes yu so sure he doesn’t already know?” Viren questioned. Without waiting for an answer, he turned to his son, “Grab him!”

“But…he’s the prince.”

“Do it!”

Seeing the guards take a step forwards, Trezac used the force to give them a light warning push back. His job was to protect the Princes and to fight the Dark Side, Viren was currently a threat in both matters.

“Where is the egg Trezac?!”

“Far from _you_ ,” he replied coldly, grabbing Callum and moving the teen behind him.

“I will give you two one more chance—”

“Before what?” the padawan hissed gripping his saber ready to activate it at a moment’s notice. “Sounds to me like you’re threatening a member of the royal family?”

The mage’s face twisted, “You impudent little mongrels!”

“I’ve been called worse,” Trezac deadpanned.

The conflict was broken by a chilled wind blowing up the spiral staircase, extinguishing the flames of the candles providing light.

“They’re here!”

Sensing something flying at them, Trezac grabbed Callum, yanking him out of the way as an arrow flew past, embedding in the armor of a surprised Soren. With an annoyed glare, the Crownguard captain yanked the arrow out, pulling out his own blade.

“Defend the doors!”

A powerful presence moved towards them and Trezac could make out the form of a see-through, glowing elf. He took down the first two guards with a swift kick before leaping across to another guard as four other elves followed close behind, one being Runaan, who Rayla had been fighting earlier.

“KING HARROW!” Callum called over the clash of blades, looking terrified as one of the elves tried to break down the door. “DAD!”

Shoving his hands forwards, Trezac willed all the strength he could muster into a force push, sending the whole elven party and Viren flying down the hall. Sharing a nod with Soren, Trezac grabbed Callum’s arm, taking off down the stairs, jumping over the bodies of the fallen.

Hopefully his efforts would by the Katolis soldiers time to regroup.

The duo ran out into the courtyard where Rayla and Ezran stood waiting with the egg. Trezac felt a little relieved, Rayla could’ve just simply taken the egg and left Erzan behind to his fate, but she didn’t.

“Say the word and I’ll go back into that tower with you,” Rayla said handing Callum his pack as Trezac rummaged through his bag, looking for his second saber. If they were going back in he’d need it.

Callum shook his head, “No. it’s up to us now. We have to return this egg. We have to keep it safe and carry it to Xadia.”

“And take it back to its mother,” Ezran smiled.

“We could change things, we could really make a difference.”

“Just the four of us,” Callum smiled and there was an angry grunt from their feet as Bait glared up at them, “Five of us.”

“Let’s go, we don’t have any time to waste,” Trezac said leading the way out of the castle only stopping to avoid guards rushing by. Seeing the coast was clear, the group ran out onto the bridge.

Ezran skid to a stop, turning to look back at the castle with his brother. “Dad will be ok, right?”

“He has to be, he has the finest guards in the kingdom protecting him,” Callum reassured though Trezac could sense doubt rolling off the older brother.

Ezran nodded with a small smile, turning and allowing the group to race into the forest.

After less than half an hour of running, Rayla trailed to a stop just as Trezac felt something in the Force, something dark. Looking up, his gaze landed on a shadowy bird flying above, one Rayla appeared to notice too. Not that it was surprising, he could sense it, she was strong in the force too.

“What is it? What’s wrong?” Callum asked.

“Oh, uh, nothing, we should stop and rest soon, it’s a long journey to Xadia.”

Trezac could agree with that, it had been and long day and night for them all. “I agree, we should rest here. No point in exhausting ourselves,” he stated getting a reluctant nod from the elf. “I’ll take first watch.”

“Just wake me up for the next shift,” Rayla grumbled.

As everyone else curled up on the ground for the night, Trezac leaned against a tree, sighing. Hard to believe he crashed here just, what, a week ago? Seemed like all that time just flew by.

A light pressure came to the crown of his head, and the padawan frowned running his fingers through his hair as he felt something climb onto it. Bringing his hand down, he was surprised to find a form of winged arthropod, it was pale and had long green wings. He felt something light brush against his own energy, like it was curious; returning the push gently, he was pleasantly surprised when the moth’s wing’s fluttered in response. It pressed it’s own energy through the Force to him again, almost insistent. Trezac frowned, Master Yoda had always said that the Force worked in mysterious ways. Perhaps this was one of those ways now. Opening his energy to the moth’s own strange force, it opened its wings and it began to glow.

-.-

The Twelfth Brother sighed as he sensed a ripple through the Force. Finally, they had located Obi-Wan’s former padawan; their Master would be most pleased.

“Did you sense that as well?” Eleventh Sister questioned standing at the door to his chambers.

“Yes,” the Clawdite replied standing up. “Tell the Captain to head for a world called: Xadia.”


	5. Perceptions of Monsters

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yes, I know the last chapter was a little short, but hey, at least now the real adventure to deliver the Dragon Prince beings right? Anyways, I’m just the author, the OCs belong to Gabeherdon308 and I don’t own TDP.

Rayla sat on a rock glaring at the silver binding on her wrist, tugging at it experimentally her brows furrowed as it remained tight. Raising a skeptic brow, she brought her wrist to her mouth and clamped her teeth down on the fabric, tugging at it like a wolf, hoping the binding would break. Nearly falling off her perch, she released the band and sat back up glaring daggers at it.

If physical means didn’t work, then perhaps magical ones would. Though…it wasn’t like she knew much magic. Maybe there was a phrase or special code?

“Unbind yourself!” she tried, frowning when the ribbon remained firmly in place. “Unbind…thyself?” Still no reaction from the binding. “Unbindo?!”

Unsurprisingly, the binding remained.

With a sigh, she looked over to the trio of humans, finding all three asleep. What made her balk was the creepy little frog-thing glaring at her. It gave a grunt, and for some inexplicable reason, Rayla felt mildly offended.

“Don’t judge me! So what, I’m talking to my ribbon-thing? How’s that any worse than talking to a…whatever you are?” she grumbled. The frog’s eyes narrowed and it changed to a darker hue, though the shadows made it difficult to tell what particular color. Narrowing her own eyes, Rayla met his challenging gaze. Whatever was going on right now, she was not going to lose to a _frog_.

Said frog then used its tongue to lick its own eye making her gag and turn away.

Looking up at the castle, guilt began to weigh in her chest as she heard bells begin to ring from the Castle on the ridge above. Seems she was right; the stories she’d heard were true, the only thing that would remove this binding was by eliminating her target. And now that she had the egg, there was no need for Ezran to die; meaning that binding would remain till her hand was gone.

-.-

“Callum. Callum. Hey!”

Callum jumped looking up at Rayla as she looked down at him with a raised brow.

“That’s you’re name right? Callum? Clem? Or was it Camel?”

“Uh, it’s Callum,” he corrected. “Guess I was just distracted trying to draw this Primal Ball.”

“Primal Stone.”

“Uh, right. It holds the pure essence of a Primal Spirit inside,” he continued, frowning when the elven girl rolled her eyes.

“Primal Source.”

“Right.”

“You do know what the six Primal Sources are?” she questioned.

Callum looked down, feeling embarrassed. He was a mage, and he didn’t even know what the Primal Sources were. How ridiculous was that? “If I say yes are you going to make me name them?”

There was a frustrated groan from the girl to his left. She held out her hand, motioning to his sketchbook. Handing it over, the girl began to draw six symbols on a blank page. “All magic in the world comes from the Primal Sources. They’re the original and purest forms of magical energy,” she began to explain, “the sun, the moon, the stars, the earth, the ocean, and…” she tapped the Primal Stone.

“The sky,” he finished and she nodded.

“Yes. To cast a spell, a mage needs Primal Energy. So that wind breath spell you did? You’d usually need a storm or at least a strong breeze. But with that stone, you have all the power of the sky, any time.”

“Wow.”

“Primal Stones are incredibly rare,” she continued, “They’ve been sought after by the most powerful archmages in history. And now, somehow you have one.”

She handed the book back and Callum looked at the images. His brows furrowed, they looked familiar...but where—of course! “I’ve seen these before, at the Banther Lodge! There was this little cube thing, and it had these exact symbols on it.”

“Uh…neat.”

“What if it’s magic? We have to go get it!”

“Wait what?” Rayla exclaimed standing up. “We have real problems to worry about. Ending the war, taking the dragon egg to Xadia, remember?”

“Xadia’s to the east, so is the lodge it’s on the way!” he pressed.

“Great. I’m sure it won’t be crawling with humans. Humans that’re looking for you and want to kill me! Yay!”

“No, it’s the winter lodge. It’s been empty for months. Trust me.”

“Callum,” Trezac spoke up making the prince jump as the jedi rose to his feet, “I don’t think this is a good idea. Your father was planning on sending you two to the lodge.”

Drat, he forgot about that. “Well, considering we never left the kingdom, they probably just assumed we changed plans,” he tried.

“Callum,” the brunette boy scolded crossing his arms. “It’s too risky.”

He sighed, guess it was time for the big guns. “Guys, look. Princes are supposed to be good at things: uh, sword fighting, leadership, riding horses. But I’ve always been kinda bad at, well, everything. So when I tried that spell, I was sure I would end up on fire or covered in spiders…but it worked. And Rayla, when you called me a mage, that just felt…right. I—I just have a feeling the this cube thing could help.”

“Callum?” Ezran yawned rubbing his eyes as the boy sat up. “I had a weird dream.”

The older brother sighed, stepping forwards and kneeling beside his baby brother. “It wasn’t a dream Ez. All of that was real.”

The younger boy looked skeptical, “You sure? There was this giant pink hippopotamus, and I pulled its ear off cause it was made of taffy. I then tried to thank the hippo, but it couldn’t hear me. Cause I was eating its ears.”

“Uh…no. That was a dream. I thought you meant the elves, the smoke wolves, the dragon egg. That was all real.”

“Hey sad prince,” Rayla spoke up making the brothers look at her and their friend. “Let’s go get your cube thingy.”

“Really?”

“We need to gather more supplies,” Trezac stated. “After that no more detours.”

“Or heartfelt speeches,” Rayla added.

-.-

“Hey guys? Can we—”

“We’re not stopping yet,” Rayla interrupted Ezran’s question as the small group kept walking.

“But I’m—”

“No snacks.”

Ezran glared at the elf girl’s back, “I was gonna say thirsty.”

Rayla grabbed a flask off her belt. “Drink this.”

Ez stepped forwards only to be stopped by his brother. “Uh, no thank you. We don’t drink…that.”

Rayla looked at Trezac and merely got a confused shrug. “What?”

“Blood,” Callum answered. “We don’t drink blood. We don’t mean to be rude, but, uh, you can keep it.”

“It’s moonberry juice,” Rayla growled shoving the flash into the younger boy’s hands. “Is that what humans think we are? Bloodthirsty monsters?”

“To be fair, I have met a race that grows their children in the brains of the dead,” Trezac commented shivering at the thought of Geonosis. That was one messed up planet.

The other three shared horrified and disgusted looks before looking back to him. “You’re kidding…right?”

He shook his head, “Lost a lot of good men to them.”

“What race was that again?” Rayla asked.

“They aren’t around here,” Trezac replied, holding out his palm and letting another of the green arthropods land on it. “But imagine these but the size of…what was your leader’s name again?” he looked at Rayla and the girl made a horrified face.

“Wherever that is, we’re not going there.”

“I doubt we could get there from here.”

“Besides,” Callum spoke up, “those could just be stories we heard. I’m sure you’ve heard scary human stories living in Xadia. Both sides have terrible, awful stories about each other—Oh look, we’re here!” The Banther Lodge came into view through a break in the trees, allowing them to survey the area. “See, no winter, no humans at the winter lodge.”

“Yet,” Trezac muttered looking skeptical.

“Let’s just make this quick,” Rayla sighed. “Tell me where the thing is and I’ll be in and out.”

Callum whirled Ezran around, rummaging through the younger boy’s bag till he found his sketchbook. “Ok, so this is the game room,” he began drawing, “the cube should be in there.” Tearing out the finished product, he handed it to the assassin wo raced through the clearing before springing and flipping her way into an open window on the second floor. “Like I said, no winter no humans.”

“I’ve said it once and I’ll say it again, your father was sending us here,” Trezac reiterated, “so if guards aren’t here yet, they will be soon.”

The brothers shared a worried look and Ezran nodded, “He’s right, it’s odd that there’s no one here yet.”

Almost on cue, a horn blared in the distance. The three boys raced to the ledge, grimacing as they saw the approaching battalion. “Yeah, we probably shouldn’t have come here.”

“That’s what I tried to tell you!” the padawan snapped. “Distract them, I’ll warn Rayla!” Whirling on his heel, Trezac sprinted for the lodge, force-jumping onto the roof of the entryway. He climbed through the window and found Rayla crawling on support beams not too far ahead. With quiet leaps, he bounded after her, grabbing her arm and narrowly avoiding having his head removed from his shoulders.

“Trezac?” she hissed.

“Troops,” he whispered and her eyes widened in realization.

“I knew it!”

“No time to worry about that now,” he said. “Ezran and Callum are distracting them. We need to find the cube and—”

He was cut off as the door burst off its hinges below them, revealing two soldiers and two surprised looking princes. “I don’t believe in locks,” the redheaded soldier spoke as the woman made motions with her hands. “Someone’s here.”

“Get the cube,” he hissed creeping across the upper banisters and jumping down in front of the group. Standing up, he didn’t need to pretend to put on an annoyed expression as he raised a brow at Callum. “Guess there was no need for me to go find a key.”

“Uh…right!” Callum nodded as he picked up the plan. “Aunt Amaya, this is Trezac.”

At his name, her eyes widened and a smile came to her face as she began signing. “So you’re the strange magic user Harrow mentioned. He told me you’d be helping guard the princes. I’m glad to see that you’ve gotten them here safely, and we apologize for our tardiness, there were some…issues on the road.”

“Sorry for making you think someone broke in,” he shrugged following the general as she began to walk. Callum elbowed him, and Trezac looked up, refraining from facepalming as he saw Rayla glaring down at them, making a motion with her hand, the padawan’s brows rose. She needed more time.

Thankfully, Callum also seemed to get the message as he knocked on the back of his aunt’s shield. “Uh…Ezran has something to tell you!” he deflected shoving his little brother forth.

The younger boy clearly looked startled by suddenly being shoved into the spotlight. “I, uh, skipped breakfast,” he lied. “I’m sorry.”

Amaya narrowed her eyes and began signing again. “Breakfast is the most important meal of the day!” she scolded. Grabbing the princes by the arms, she drug them into the kitchen, sitting them down in seats before Trezac yelped as she plopped him down in a chair as well as she and her men began scrounging through the kitchen. Going to a cabinet, she opened it pulling out a long baguette with a frown. “The food here is,” she slammed it on the counter making a dent in the wood, “weapon’s grade.” She slammed the loaf on the table before stabbing a knife into the wood in front of the three terrified males. “Dig in.”

Callum reached out, grabbing the loaf as Ezran began to attempt to remove the knife in the table. “Aunt Amaya, why are you here?” the elder brother questioned.

“I received a messenger bird from the king yesterday,” Gren relayed as the general sat down across from them handing them a scroll.

Callum started patting his form with wide eyes.

“What’s wrong?”

“He gave me a letter too, but I must’ve dropped it somewhere. What’d your letter say?”

Amaya handed it over and the three boys began to read.

_“General. The Castle is under threat. Assassins have infiltrated the kingdom. Moonshadow elves.”_

“The worst kind,” Amaya sneered.

_“Do not bring your force to the castle. Your orders are to immediately proceed to the Banther Lodge. Callum and Ezran will be there. They will be accompanied by a young ‘Jedi’ mage named Trezac. He’ll be assisting in their safety till your arrival. Above all, see to it that my sons and their friend are safe.”_

“Wait,” she interrupted, “there’s more on the back.”

Raising a brow, the paper was flipped over. _“P.S. Once their safety is assured, the boys may wish to build a dirtman,”_ Callum read. “We do not wish to build a dirtman.”

“No, we do not,” Ezran said trying to saw through the bread.

“You’re safe now boys,” she smiled and Ezran nodded, finally breaking the loaf into two pieces. They all grimaced as there was a crunch as the boy tried to bite down on the so-called food.

-.-

There was a loud sigh from Callum as he slumped into the couch. “This is all my fault. We should’ve never have come here.”

“Gee, it’s almost as if I told you this would happen,” Trezac remarked opening an eye from where he sat mediating by the fireplace.

“I know! I should’ve listened.”

“But we found Aunt Amaya,” Ezran interjected. “Maybe we should tell her.”

“Tell her what?”

“About the egg…and Rayla.”

Callum scowled, “We can’t! Didn’t you hear what she said? How she talked about elves? To Aunt Amaya elves are monsters.”

“But if we just explain everything—”

“It won’t work. Humans and elves just don’t trust each other.”

Trezac nodded, “I agree with Callum. If we tell her, there’s a good chance that they could hurt Rayla, or worse. That outcome isn’t likely to change until we return the egg and restore peace; and to do that, we need to find Rayla and leave.” Getting to his feet, the padawan stretched. “You guys gather supplies, I’ll see if Rayla’s ready to go.”

With steady steps, Trezac strode out the front door, past the guards who barely glanced his way. After all, as far as they knew, he was just another guard; so walking into the woods to inspect the perimeter would no doubt be a normal act. The bushes rustled as he slipped into the brush, crouching down and hiding from the troops as he crept deeper. Closing his eyes, he reached out with the Force, trying to pinpoint the familiar energy emanating from the elven girl.

At first he sensed several of the anthropoids he had nearby earlier. They felt like Rayla, but they were too small and weak to be her. His focus landed on a different energy, this one feeling much stronger than the little insects, but weaker and more…fiery, more wild than Rayla’s did. It began to get closer and Trezac opened his eyes, watching as a small carnivore emerged from the brush. It had brilliant red fur with a yellow underbelly and paws, as well as an orange stripe running along from it’s head to its bushy tail. Triangle-shaped ears perked up, and the animal gave a soft croon, cautiously stepping forwards.

Trezac smiled, kneeling down and holding a hand out towards the little critter. It sniffed at his hand for a moment, drawing back before cautiously licking it causing him to chuckle. “Well, aren’t you a friendly little guy,” he whispered gently petting its ear.

“That’s a Firefox,” Rayla spoke from behind making the Jedi jump. He didn’t even sense her approach. “Never thought I’d see one here. Seems to like you.”

“I’ve noticed,” he remarked. “Have you found the cube?”

She shook her head. “Not yet, I had to make myself scarce before they realized that you three weren’t the only ones trying to get into the place.”

He nodded in understanding. “I’ll get the Princes and our supplies, you get the cube, we’ll meet up afterwards.”

-.-

“Where is she?” Callum questioned as they crouched in the woods waiting for Rayla. “I thought you said she’d be here?”

“She was supposed to get the cube and meet us here,” Trezac reiterated for the tenth time. “Something must’ve gone wrong.”

“We need to help her,” Ezran said clutching Bait to his chest.

Trezac nodded in agreement, “Where would your aunt be most likely to keep a prisoner here?”

“The basement,” Callum answered. “There’s a dumbwaiter in the kitchen that leads there. We can use Bait to blind the guards while you free her.”

“Sounds like a plan,” Trezac said. Getting to his feet, he raced for the entry to the basement. In front of him, the door began to creak open, making him force-jump onto the roof. Peering over the edge, he smirked as he saw General Amaya and Gren storm out, looking frustrated. Callum’s bet was right on the money, this had to be where Rayla was being held. Silently hopping down, he nearly pulled out his lightsaber as the fox startled him, its ears perking up in attention and tail wagging. The padawan sighed, “Fine, you can come.”

Creeping to the doors, Trezac pressed his ear to the door, trying to find the perfect opportunity. “Careful with those. Wouldn’t want to lose a finger,” he heard Rayla taunt. “I mean, can you imagine going through life with only four fingers?”

His brows went up, elves had four fingers? He didn’t even notice. Maybe that was cause most races with less than five fingers he’d met tended to be more amphibious or insectoid.

From the other side of the door, there was a soft grinding, making him press closer to the door. Was that the dumbwaiter? Or was a guard about to attack Rayla? Either way, he’d have to make his move soon.

“Have you met Bait? Say hello to my little friend.”

A flash came from under the door and Trezac yanked it open. Sprinting in, he used the force to hurl the disoriented guards across the room into a pile of barrels as the fox bit the ropes, breaking Rayla out of her bonds. The elvish girl grinned, picking up her blades and Bait.

“Thanks!”

“Don’t mention it,” he replied leading the way. “Callum and Ezran are waiting for us.”

Regrouping, they sprinted through the foyer and out the front door past the guards. They ran for the bridge only to stop as they found their way blocked my more soldiers; turning around they all frowned. They were surrounded.

“Stop right there elf!” Gren spoke for Amaya as she strode forwards. “Callum, Ezran, Trezac, come here.”

“Callum, we should just tell her,” Ezran spoke up quietly.

“Boys, get away from her.”

Seeing the aunt was about to get violent, Trezac began reaching for his lightsaber, he didn’t want to hurt them. But they needed to get to Xadia, to end this infernal war.

Fortunately, Callum managed to get their attention. “Wait,” he spoke up, before making motions with his hands, speaking in the same visual dialect the general used.

“What are you saying?” Rayla hissed.

“He said: if we don’t let you go, you’ll kill them and drink their blood. That you are a monster.”

Both Rayla and Trezac looked at Callum in shared horror. In return, he gave them a nervous smile before looking back to his aunt. “See, so you have to let us go.”

Amaya began signing again, “It’s ok Callum. I’ve slain monsters before. Do it, take her out.”

The archers fired and Trezac acted, using the force to make the arrow headed for her head fly sideways, allowing the assassin to slice through it. The second arrow came by as she dodged, cutting through a piece of her braid. As they began to knotch their bows again, Rayla already had her swords at the princes’ throats.

“Go ahead, take another shot. But read my lips, the next time I swing my blade, I’ll end both of them in half a second!” Rayla threatened.

Amaya’s face darkened, but she raised a hand, ordering her men to stand down.

“Move humans,” Rayla hissed glaring at Trezac and shoving Ezran and Callum along as they made unconvincing yelps of pain. Once they slipped down the steps out of sight of the men, they ran to the rivers edge where a boat sat waiting. “What now?”

“Now we get in,” Trezac said handing Bait off to Ezran and making sure the fox safely jumped on board.

“I don’t think a boat—”

“We don’t have time for this,” Trezac muttered grabbing her arm and yanking her in. A force-push caused the boat to move away from the shoreline, into the middle of the river. Away from the soldiers and towards Xadia.

-.-

Viren growled as he stormed into his chambers, slamming the door behind him. He’d been so close! So close to being able to have the power he needed to march on Xadia, to eradicate the threat and lead to a better world for humanity!

“Well that didn’t go according to plan,” a smooth female voice spoke.

Viren jumped, pulling out his staff. “Who’s there?!”

“My, my, is that a way to treat allies?” a human woman said emerging from the shadows with a man. They both wore black armor and had strange devices on their hips. Ones that looked remarkabily similar to Trezac’s. In fact, they had similar energy as well.

“Allies?”

“Of course,” the woman smiled. “We have the same enemies,” she opened her palm and he frowned as a hologram of Trezac appeared, “this one for instance. He’s a traitor and a criminal. We’ve tracked him to your world.”

“As, so your mages like he is,” Viren mused tracing his beard.

The pair glanced at each other and looked back at him, “So do you want our help, or not?”


	6. Problems

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I’m just the author, the OCs belong to Gabeherdon308 and I don’t own TDP.

Callum leaned against a log taking watch as everyone else rested. Pulling out the cube, he looked over the symbols, wondering what exactly it was. He reached into his bag and pulled out the Primal Stone. Holding the pair up to each other, his brows shot up as the sky rune began to glow in response. When he separated them, the symbol stopped glowing, and only resumed if it was close to the stone again.

Could…could the cube sense Primal magic?

Green eyes darted to the being most likely to give him an answer. Slowly creeping to his feet, he crouched beside Rayla, holding the cube just a few inches above her sleeping form. As he suspected, the moon rune began to glow.

A hand grabbed his own, and Callum flinched as Rayla glared at him. “This doesn’t end well for you.”

Falling back, he gave her a challenging look as she sat up. “Last night you thought the cube was just a worthless toy,” he stated, “but now we know—”

“It’s a glow toy!” she sarcastically interrupted.

Bait and the Firefox cautiously approached the cube on the ground, looking curiously as the sun rune came to life. “Exactly,” Callum said picking the cube up.

“Exactly,” Rayla grumbled getting to her feet. “I’m going to find some food.”

“Wait, we got food,” Ezran said startling the pair. Evidently he was awake. “Trezac?”

There was a groan from a dark mass nearby and the Padawan sat up, his cloak pooling around him on the ground. “Yeah,” he yawned rubbing his eyes.

“The food?”

“Oh, yeah, that,” he mumbled reaching into his bag and pulling out a couple ration bars. “Here.”

“What is this?” Rayla questioned holding the bar like it was something that would bite her.

“It’s a ration bar,” the padawan stated taking a bite of his own. “They’re from my home. They carry all the nutrition you need for a meal. I’ll admit, it’s a little bland, but it’s better than nothing.”

The three natives of the planet frowned and hesitantly started taking bites of the foreign food. Trezac wasn’t kidding about it being bland, even the rock-hard bread Ezran had grabbed had more flavor than these things. But they all supposed it would have to do. They needed the energy to reach Xadia.

“So,” Rayla gulped, coughly slight on her bar, “Trezac, where exactly are you from?”

“Not your world if that’s what you mean,” he replied.

The elven girl’s brows furrowed at that, thinking back on tales she once heard as a child. Ethari used to tell her about Startouch Elves who used to speak of other beings beyond the stars. Was that what this strange human was? A being from beyond the stars? Like what _he_ was said to be?

But that couldn’t be possible. Trezac was human.

“Yeah,” Ezran said finishing off the remainder of his bar, “he crashed here a week ago! I got to see his space ship, it was so cool!”

-.-

“And this is the throne room,” Viren spoke opening the doors and leading the Eleventh Sister into the grand hall.

“How…quaint,” she said following him inside.

“Might I ask, when will your…partner be joining us?”

“When he’s ready,” she replied.

“What exactly is he?”

“A Clawdite, they can mimic the forms of others, he just needs to find a suitable copy,” she lied. Reality was that he needed to kill some poor soul so his cloaking tech could fully copy it and make him look human. But the high mage didn’t need to know such things. It could damage their tedious alliance.

“Ah.”

“Thought I might run into you here.” The pair turned to see General Amaya and her translator Gren standing beside one of the pillars. “We need to talk.”

-.-

Rayla stood on a ledge overlooking the vast human lands before her. Sitting down, she looked at her binding then back to where the humans sat gathering the remainder of their supplies. Guilt churned her stomach, almost making her return the strange human food as she looked at the binding on her wrist. The King was dead, their father was dead; and she hadn’t told them. She supposed they deserved to know, but, on the other hand, they needed to work together to reach Xadia. If the princes found out, then they could go back on this alliance and choose to avenge their loss.

With a sigh, she pulled out one of her swords. “Here goes nothin’.” Gently slipping the tip of the blade under the binding, carefully turning the blade up to avoid accidently slashing her wrists. “Easy now,” she murmured trying to start cutting away at the binding.

In a moment of frustration, she pushed harder, nearly falling off the ledge in surprise as the blade slipped out from under the binding. Gritting her teeth, she tried again, “What is this thing made of?”

Sighing in defeat, she looked out over the land again. Suppose she’d have to find another way to get this binding off. Her thoughts drifted back to the two human mages accompanying her. While Callum was obviously a novice to magic, Trezac seemed quite familiar with the art—the non-Dark art, which was highly unusual for a human, but she wouldn’t complain.

It was possible he knew of something to get the binding off. He could do spells without saying a word or even using a rune! That was almost unheard of!

There was no doubt that Trezac was a powerful mage, so he had to know something. And even if his spells didn’t work, his strange weapons might. They almost reminded her of sunforged blades.

“HELP! HELP!”

Hearing the cry, she sprang to her feet and raced back to camp. She burst into the clearing alongside a certain red-clad mage, both of them pulling out their two blades looking around for a threat. “What is it what happened?”

Actually stopping to take in the scene, Rayla could see Trezac deactivate his glowing swords and facepalm. Callum was standing in the middle of the clearing, Primal Stone in one hand, lighting sparking off to his surroundings on the other.

“Help!”

“He tried to copy Claudia’s lightning spell,” Ezran exclaimed hiding behind a rock with Bait and the still unnamed Firefox, “but he doesn’t know how to finish it.”

“Yeah, I only saw he do the first half,” Callum added. “But I’m very good at the first half!”

Trezac facepalmed again as Rayla looked like she wanted to smack the novice mage upside the head. “Seriously? That sounds like a really good and safe idea.”

“Ok, lecture well-deserved, but what do I do now?”

“Trezac, you’re a mage,” Ezran spoke up again and all heads turned to the padawan.

“What I do still isn’t magic! How many times do I have to tell you guys this?!”

Rayla grimaced. Ok, so clearly Trezac learned magic differently than most so he wasn’t going to be much help currently. “Well, when you release a spell there’s usually some kind of word or a phrase or something in ancient draconic.”

“Uh, ok…anybody speak dragon? I don’t speak dragon.”

“Do I look like a protocol droid?!”

“You didn’t hear Claudia say anything?” Rayla questioned wondering what exactly a protocol droid was. She’d have to ask later after they solved the current crisis.

“No! I—I mean when I grabbed her hand she might’ve called me a fool,” he replied.

“Sounds about right,” Trezac deadpanned.

“Yep,” Rayla agreed. “Ok, give me a second. I know some Draconic words. Just let me think…”

“You know what, I’m just gonna toss it!”

“What?!”

“I’m gonna throw Trezac the Primal Stone and he can use his magic to catch it!”

“That’s a good plan!” Ezran agreed as the other two shook their heads.

“No, that’s a terrible plan!”

“I’ll just gently toss it.”

“No, no! No throwing, no tossing!” Rayla protested.

“Tossing it!” Callum said throwing the ball. The crack of lightning echoed through the air and Callum sat up looking relieved. “It worked! I’m ok!” With a grin he turned to Trezac and Rayla, both of whom had their hair standing on end as they both grabbed the stone.

“You’re kinda making a sizzling sound,” Ezran commented as the fox sniffed Trezac’s leg.

“Sorry about that,” Callum apologized as he stood up. “I guess I’m just so excited to learn magic and I got carried away.”

Rayla smoothed down her hair, handing the stone back to Callum, “Enough almost killing me. The sooner we return this egg, the sooner—maybe—this war will end. It’s time to hit the road.”

“Road? Why wear ourselves out on a road when we have a boat?”

Trezac raised a brow as he felt a spike of fear from the elven girl. “Nope! Say goodbye to the boat. We go by land from here.”

“The river will be much faster,” Trezac stated. “This is no time to let fear get in the way of our objective.”

Rayla scoffed, “Fear? Of what?”

Trezac pointed to the boat. “That.”

“So wait, are you this back-flippin’, tree-climbin’, sword-slashing elven warrior who’s scared of a little splish-splashin’?” Callum inquired wearing a teasing grin.

“That’s cute!” Ezran cooed.

Rayla’s face turned red and she stomped towards the river, “Fine! We’ll take the stupid boat!”

-.-

“How could you let it come to this?!” Amaya demanded.

“You speak as if I invited these assassins.”

The general glared and began signing again, “I had to leave our stronghold at the Breach. Do you have any idea of the dangerous forces gathered at our border?”

“I did everything in my power to protect King Harrow! I was willing to give my own life.”

“Then what went wrong?”

“He did!” Viren snapped, motioning towards the empty throne. “His own stubborn ways stopped me from helping him! You know him as well as I do. His pride was more important to him than his life!”

Amaya’s face darkened, “You wanted this outcome.”

“How dare you suggest—”

“His death creates opportunity for you!”

“His death breaks my heart.”

“Then honor him. Find his children.”

“They’re gone Amaya. Kidnapped by a rogue mage and a Moonshadow Elf. If they aren’t already dead, they will be soon.”

Amaya’s eyes narrowed. “What do you mean rogue mage?”

“Trezac! These people say he’s a traitor!” he motioned to the Eleventh Sister.

“Is that my cue?” the woman smiled, standing straight from where she was leaning against a column. “Pleasure to meet you General. I am the Eleventh Sister,” she bowed, “and I have come to this world in search of a traitor to the Empire. I’m sure he looks familiar,” she held out the hologram of Trezac. “We believe he has some important…information that he took from us.”

Amaya scowled, looking over the woman warily. “Why should I believe you?”

The woman looked wounded, placing a hand to her chest, “What reason would I have to lie to you General? It’s not like I know my way around this world. I wouldn’t get far if I wasn’t being honest. Surely if I were going to betray you, it’d be when you are without a king. Weak.”

“She’s right,” Viren nodded. “This is a time of crisis. An empty throne is a beacon of weakness. An invitation to destroy us. We must defend Katolis and all the human kingdoms with whatever allies we can from whatever is coming. I can help us! From there!”

Amaya shook her head.

Viren sighed, stepping down, “You think I’m being an opportunist. But I couldn’t be more selfless in my motivation. I am a servant of Katolis. I am a servant!”

“Those are awfully nice clothes for a humble servant.”

“You don’t believe me?” he asked and Amaya raised a brow. “Then take it. Go ahead, sit down. I’ll support you as Queen Regent. I’ll gather the High Council, and we’ll send words to the other monarchs of the Pentarchy immediately.”

“The throne stays empty until we find the boys.”

Viren growled storming from the room, turning down the hall, he was surprised to find the Sister waiting for him. Looing behind him, then back at her, he remained confused, how did she…?

“That’s for me to know,” she smiled tapping his nose. “Anyways, I see we have a bit of a problem. Perhaps Brother is almost done so we can devise some…creative solutions.”


	7. Dark Waters

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey y’all I’m back for the next chapter! Just Fyi, my spring semester starts in a few days so, my updates might be getting a little more infrequent from here. Just figured I’d warn y’all now. Now, I’m just the author, the OCs belong to Gabeherdon308 and I don’t own TDP.

“Bait,” Ezran scolded picked the little glow-toad up from where he was wagging his short tail in the river water, “you know you’re not supposed to do that. No playing in the water.”

Callum chuckled, turning to his new friends to give them an explanation, “Bait loves the water, though he should be afraid of it. You wanna know why he’s named Bait?”

“Ugh, not really,” Rayla granded, sitting up from where she’d been lying on the deck.

“Well, I’m gonna tell you anyway,” Callum continued. “It’s kind of a sick joke, I guess. Glow toads, they’re apparently…delicious.”

“Gross,” Rayla winced while Trezac shrugged.

“I can see it.”

“Deep-sea fishermen use them to catch giant fish, things like that,” Callum elaborated, “That’s why he’s named Bait. Get it? That’s my stepdad’s sense of humor. But yeah, that’s why we have to be extra careful about him not getting in the water.”

“Guys!” Ezran hissed covering Bait’s ears, “He doesn’t no how delicious he is so shh!” The small animal turned colors as Ezran released his head. “Speaking of names, what about that little guy? What’s his? He doesn’t have a name yet.”

“How about Blaze?” Callum offered.

“I personally like Ignis,” Rayla grunted.

“Actually,” Trezac interrupted, “I was thinking of naming him Agir.”

“That’s a cool name!” Ezran piped and smiled as the small fox licked the padawan’s cheek. “And he likes it too!”

-.-

“So, the Princes, what can you tell us about them?” the Sister questioned lazily picking up a phoenix feather he had sitting on the desk.

“They’re young, children,” he scoffed.

Dark gold eyes flickered up to him and the woman smiled striding closer and lifting his chin teasingly, “Oh Viren, just because they’re children doesn’t make them a threat we can ignore. They are the ones standing between us and the power you need to march on Xadia. I doubt the other leaders will listen to a mere servant, but a King. That would be another story.”

Dark grey eyes widened, “You want to…kill the princes?”

The sister chuckled, “We could even provide you weapons. The likes of which you’ve never seen to fight the elves,” Viren smirked at her offer. However, the sister stepped back turning to the window, “But you see, we can’t. Not until we’re formally invited by a ruler or a world.” Turning back to the mage, she gave him a soft smile, “Do you think the Princes would be willing?”

Viren looked her in the eye, “No.”

“See,” the brother spoke from where he leaned against the wall in the shadows of the room. “As you said, they’re too weak to need what needs to be done. And with our support, I doubt anyone would challenge your claim.”

“Me?”

“Why not?” she asked. “You’ve been the King’s right hand for years, the High Mage of Katolis, father of the youngest Captain of the Guard the kingdom’s seen. Surely you’d know what would be best for your people?”

Viren nodded, “Of course, I’ll go speak with General Amaya again. Try to see if I can make her see reason.”

“Yes, do that,” Eleventh Sister smiled as he walked out the office, closing the door behind him.

“Sister, remember what we’re here for.”

The woman scoffed, “Don’t patronize me! I know very well. Besides, Lord Vader will be very interested in this ‘magic’ they speak of.”

“Indeed.”

“We’ll reach our objective soon enough; _he_ is so easy to manipulate. Tell the Admiral, to get the troops ready, it shouldn’t be long.”

-.-

“You doing alright?” Callum asked as the three boys watched the elven girl hunch over in the boat.

“I’m doing great,” she replied before doubling over as she continued to gag. “I just love boats, so much. That’s why I’m down here,” she gagged again, “to be close to the boat.”

“Remind me to never taking to space,” Trezac noted ignoring Rayla’s glare at the comment.

Callum frowned before perking up as an idea came to him, “Tell you what, I’ll ask you five questions.”

“Please don’t.”

“Come on, it’ll be a fun distraction, help take your mind off things,” Callum pressed.

Rayla sighed, “Five questions. That’s all you get.”

A grin split the step-prince’s face. “Great! Question One: We always heard these crazy things about Xadia. Like it was this place with just magic everywhere. Is that really what it’s like?”

“Yes. Next question.”

“It must be so weird that everywhere you look there’s magic.”

Rayla raised a brow a him, “It’s not weird. In Xadia magic’s in pretty much everything. It’s no different than saying everywhere you look there’s nature. It’s just part of the vibrance or the spirit of things, you know?”

“I can’t wait to see that, it sounds incredible.”

“Yeah, it is.”

“Sounds like my home,” Trezac commented, a small amount of mourning in his voice.

“Really?” Rayla questioned looking to the human. He was a strange one. He knew magic that wasn’t dark; didn’t use spells or runes either. And now it sounded like he came from a place a lot like Xadia. But…how was that possible? _All_ the humans had been driven out over a century ago.

“See, it’s working, right?” Callum interrupted, sitting beside her with a goofy grin. “Feeling a little better?”

“Maybe so,” she replied sitting up. “Ask your next question.”

“Ok, question two: What are your parents like?”

Good feelings gone.

Rayla scowled, turning away, “They’re dead.”

“Oh,” Callum whispered looking down in shame, “I’m sorry Rayla. I didn’t mean too…”

“It’s fine. No more questions.”

In understanding, Callum leaned back in his seat, trying to think of something else to distract Rayla. “So, Trezac, what kind of magic do you use?”

The padawan groaned loudly, throwing his head back in frustration. “For the last time! _IT’S NOT MAGIC!_ ”

“Then what is it?” Rayla spoke up.

Trezac sighed, leaning back against the railing; finally a chance to explain. “What I use is called the Force. It’s kind of a cosmic…energy that binds and connects all living things together. Some are more sensitive to it than others, and I’m one of those people. As kids we’re taken to the Jedi Temple, where we learn how to control our abilities; use them to help keep the peace,” he explained rubbing his thumb on his knuckles, “We…can do things, see things, sometimes hear and sense things others can’t. It’s—it’s hard to explain. But it isn’t your magic. Trust me.”

“You sure?” Rayla questioned turning back to the conversation. “Seems a lot like magic to me.”

The pale boy frowned, running a hand through his hair. “Who knows, it might be related. I mean, there’s multiple ways to use the Force. I mean, the Sith can throw lightning with their hands.”

“What’s a Sith?” Ezran asked.

“That’ll have to wait,” Callum interrupted the conversation before looking to Rayla. “So, this may be a bad time to bring this up, but are you sure you aren’t scared of the water?”

“I’m done with questions!”

“I know, it’s just—look!” he exclaimed forcing all heads to turn to the river in front of them.

All eyes went wide. Before them, the once smooth river began to descend down a slope, picking up speed, creating whitewater rapids ahead of them.

“PULL THE BOAT OVER!” Rayla screamed flattening herself to the deck.

“I don’t think there’s time.”

“PULL IT OVER. I ADMIT IT! I HATE THE WATER! I’M AFRAID OF IT, IT MAKES ME SICK! ALL THE BAD FEELINGS!”

“IT’S TOO LATE, HANG ON!” Callum called out in warning.

Four screams filled their air as they went over the first waterfall.

-.-

“So how’d it go?” a singsong voice trilled as he entered his office.

With a sigh, Viren turned to see the Sister lying on his desk, her feet kicking back and forth as she rested her chin on her palm. “It went well. Amaya has agreed to return to the breach.”

“But…?” the brother spoke from behind him, making the High Mage jump.

With a gulp, he straightened his shoulders and looked him in the eye. “She’s insisting on sending a rescue for the princes. She’s ordered that her Commander be placed in charge.”

“Well, well,” Sister tsked, “that just won’t do now will it? Not if we want our plans to succeed.” She tapped her chin in thought before perking up and hopping off the table, “I know! What if we let her _think_ she was in charge?”

-.-

The boat slowed down as the rapids ended with one final waterfall. Causing five soaked forms to shakily pop up from where they’d been sprawled on the deck.

“You faced your fear. Do you feel better about water now?” Callum asked.

Rayla leaned over the side, shaking like a leaf, “I’ve never felt worse about water.”

“Yeah,” Trezac murmured, “I think I finally understand what my Master meant about Sky-Guy’s flying.”

“Well, anyway, we’re making great time,” Callum reassured.

“Awesome.”

“Hey guys?” Ezran spoke up, “Has anyone seen Bait?”

Everyone froze before they started scrounging under their seats trying to find the small glow-toad. From the falls, they heard a distressed whine and all heads turned as they saw a green bait coming down the falls.

Eyes widening, Trezac threw out his hand, using the Force to catch the falling frog. Bait gave a startled yelp as he was stopped mid-air, his small legs flailing as he floated over the water and onto the boat where he landed safely in Ezran’s arms.

“THANK GOODNESS YOU’RE SAFE!” Ezran said hugging his pet closer.

Rayla sighed, lying back now that the crisis was over. “What a disaster.”

“I know right?!” Callum exclaimed nearly hitting Trezac with the oar as he turned to face Rayla. “My socks are all soggy! A disaster! A soggy disaster!”

“I’d call that more of an inconvenience,” Trezac muttered.

From where she sat, Rayla jumped as she saw the glow-toy on the floor, one of the symbols glowing brightly. “Um, Callum?”

The novice mage picked up the cube, looking at the glowing rune, “Hey. It’s the ocean rune. I haven’t seen this one light up before.”

Trezac raised a hand slowly, “Am I the only one wondering _why_ it’s lighting up?”

Everyone screamed as they were suddenly flying through the air. With a Force Push, Trezac kept himself from slamming head-first into a rock as he and Rayla made impact on the shore. Behind them, there were three splashes as Callum, Ezran, Bait, and Agir landed in the water.

Springing off the rock, he pulled out his lightsabers as he rolled to his feet, taking in the situation.

Some strange, green aquatic beast roared as it dove back under the water, causing Bait to give a loud cry. “Rayla, get the others to shore! I’ll distract it!” Trezac sprinted towards the water putting his weapons away, diving in and swimming out past the boys. Bait gave a loud yelp as the animal’s tail hit him, sending the poor little animal flying through the air. “CATCH!” he called changing Bait’s direction and sending him flying to the shore where he slammed into Rayla, knocking her to the ground.

A shadow came up from under him, causing Trezac to give a startled cry as a massive tail knocked him up into the air, sending the padawan slamming on the back of the strange fish. Looking up, the boy paled, it was going after Callum, Ezran, and Agir; all three of whom were still trying to get to shore.

Pulling out a sword, a bright yellow blade burst to life. He swung it down, carving a deep cut into the beast’s side, making it release a loud cry as it turned away from the pain. The response created a wave that sent the remaining three to shore.

Good, now he just needed to get off and they were Scott free. The padawam raced down the creature’s body as it turned away from shore. With a final leap, he flew off, landing in the shallows panting and putting the saber away. “I think…I’m with Rayla…on avoiding…the water.”

-.-

“Don’t you think one of us should go with them Sister?”

The Eleventh Sister rolled her eyes, looking down on the group below, watching as Viren tricked Amaya and lured Gren into a trap just as she told him to. It was so fun to have a puppet on strings. “And ruin the fun? Why?” she drawled. “We both know his children won’t have it in them. They’ll bring the children back. Won’t it be fun to kill them all ourselves before conquering this worthless rock?”


	8. Smoke & Mirrors

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey y’all! Welcome to the next chapter. Once again, this story idea’s owned by Gabeherdon308 and so are the OCs. I’m just the writer. I don’t own TDP or Star Wars.

_“Trezac…”_

_“…Trezac…”_

_“…Trezac!”_

Startled from sleep, the padawan shot up, looking around him in confusion. Callum, Bait, Agir, and Ezran were still asleep, and Rayla was on watch last he checked. Looking towards the skies, brows furrowed as he saw the first rays of sunlight starting to peek from over the trees.

Ok, so, it wasn’t time to go yet. Glancing towards the elf, he gave a quiet groan. She must’ve dozed off at somepoint.

So…who did he hear?

A twig snapped in the distance and the Jedi hopped to his feet just as Rayla did the same, apparently only to be feigning sleep. “You heard that right?” he whispered.

“Yeah,” she nodded, grabbing one of her swords. “Wake the others, I’ll go check it out.”

As she ran off into the woods, Trezac hopped onto the gnarled tree roots the boys crawled under and reached down shaking Ezran’s head gently by his bushy hair. From below, there was a slight groan and darker green eyes met his own, blinking up at him blearily. “Trezac?” he yawned. “What time is it?”

“Doesn’t matter, wake up Callum.”

Even though the boy was only half-awake, he heard the urgency in the padawan’s voice. Blinking a few more times, he looked around, eyes going wide as he failed to find Rayla. The younger prince turned around, shaking his brother. “Callum. I think we’re alone.”

“Finally,” Callum replied hugging on of the baguettes, “oh, I’ve been waiting for this moment.”

The two conscious boys looked at each other then back at the slumbering teen, “Callum?”

“Mmm. Your breath still smells like peanut butter,” Callum groaned and Trezac facepalmed.

“CALLUM!”

“Wha—What?”

“Wake up, Rayla’s missing,” Ezran informed.

Callum immediately shot up, nearly hitting his head on a low root. “Did she take it?”

“No she didn’t,” Trezac stated hopping down and helping the pair out. “She’s checking out something right now.”

“Ok, good. But that doesn’t mean we can trust her.”

“I’d pick her any day over a Sith like Viren,” Trezac hissed grabbing their supplies.

“I’m with Trezac, I like her.”

“I know, but it just she’s…”

“An elf?!” Ezran exploded. “It seems maybe everything we’ve ever heard about elves is wrong!”

“No, no, no!” Callum exclaimed waving his hands and shaking his head. “That’s not what I meant. It’s just…she’s not telling us everything. I can feel it.”

Something heavy settled in Trezac’s gut in that moment. He knew the princes were both Force sensitive in their own right—how much he wasn’t sure. But if Callum could tell something was off; as much as he didn’t want to admit it, Callum may’ve had a point. For the past few days he’d sensed something…off about Rayla. He didn’t know what, but whatever it was, it was slowly getting worse. Like…like if something had been eating her from the inside out.

He glanced in the assassin went warily. Was it…was it possible she led them into a trap?

At that moment, Rayla leapt out from the trees, sprinting towards them. “Go! Go! Go!” she called racing over and picking up her supplies.

“Where were you?” Callum demanded.

“That doesn’t matter we need to go!”

“We should eat first,” Ezran said, “Look at how grumpy Bait is.”

The elf groaned loudly. “There’s no time!” she exclaimed.

“What was it?” Trezac questioned crossing his arms.

“Yeah you should at least explain—”

“I DON’T HAVE TO EXPLAIN ANYTHING TO YOU!” she snarled picking up the elder brother’s bag and shoving it into Callum’s arms. “Let’s go!”

-.-

The Eleventh Sister raised a brow as she heard grunting coming from the stairs as she sat a few yards away from the High Mage of Katolis. Her gaze flickered away from her most recent source of entertainment and landed on the Captain of the Guard as he began doing lunges towards them.

“I love having meetings up here,” Soren spoke moving into squats. “I get a nice leg work out going up all those stairs.”

“We have more important things to discuss, boy,” Sister spoke. “Do pay attention.”

Brows furrowing, he stood up straight looking at the strange woman before him. “Uh…who are you?”

“Soren, meet the Eleventh Sister,” Viren introduced. “She and her brother are powerful mages sent to help us in our time of need.”

Putting on a smile, she elegantly slid down from where she’d perched herself on the castle walls. “So, you’re the heroic Captain of the Guard I’ve heard _so_ much about,” she admired. “I have to say, the stories really don’t do you justice. It’s not every day you become the youngest Captain of the Guard in the history of Katolis.”

The young man before her merely blushed, chuckling likely. “Y-yeah. You’re not wrong…Eleventh Sister, was it?”

“You can call me Eleven.”

“You have my undivided attention.”

“This evening,” Viren began, “you and your sister depart on a mission…”

“Searching for the princes,” the knight grunted as he began to stretch.

“The outcome of your mission is critical to the future of this kingdom,” Viren continued.

The young man chuckled lightly, “We’ve got this. We’ll find them.”

“Of that we have no doubt,” the inquisitor smiled, “but…there might be a slight…problem.”

Soren stopped stretching at that, standing up straight to look at the two figures before him. “The elf? She’ll be easy.”

“There’s a bit more nuance to the situation than you understand, Soren,” Viren scolded.

“No idea what that means.”

The High Mage sighed stepping forwards and putting a hand on his son’s shoulder, “Listen closely. You are to return with the terrible news that the princes have perished.”

“Wait…what?”

The Eleventh Sister chuckled lightly, slinging an arm over his shoulder, “You heard him. The princes aren’t coming back alive.”

-.-

“Wait,” Rayla spoke up as the small group strode along a mountain path, “this path is too easy.”

“No it’s not,” Callum argued. “It’s exactly the right amount of easy.”

The elvish girl rolled her eyes, “No. it’s well worn, it’s flat, it’s soft. Sooner or later we’re going to run into somebody.”

“You can barrow my cloak if it’s that much of a problem for you,” Trezac grumbled.

“Still too risky,” she said moving to another overgrown path and pointing up, “We need to go that was. Tougher terrain is safer for us. The tougher the better.”

“Well that sounds terrible,” Callum muttered.

“Exactly!”

Trezac facepalmed, this chick had to be related to Master Skywalker with how stubborn she was. He always had to make things more difficult. He had a distinct memory of him saying, _“That’d be too easy,”_ once when they were making battle plans.

“This is already tough enough,” Ezran whined. “Do you know how heavy this egg is?”

“Uh no, I don’t. Cause you won’t trust me to carry it!”

“Well should we trust you?” Callum questioned. “Have you told us the truth about everything?”

Trezac couldn’t help but notice the way she avoided answering as she scoffed, “Fine, keep carrying the extremely heavy egg. But quit crying about it. We’re going this way.”

Sighing, Trezac turned to Ezran, quickly putting his pack down, “I’ll carry the egg for a little while. My bag’s lighter.”

-.-

“So…if we returned with the news that the princes have died…won’t that mean we failed?” Soren questioned stepping back from Eleven and looking at his father in confusion. They couldn’t be serious.

“The coming war will determine the fate of humanity,” his father spoke, avoiding answering his question. “History has come to a crucial tipping point.”

“So, you’re saying things could go either way?”

“Exactly.”

“Like a see-saw!”

Both mages looked unamused as they stared at him, “Yes, Soren. History is like a see-saw. If we are strong enough to make the right decisions, humans may finally return to Xadia and take back the great magical lands that are rightfully ours.”

“But…” Eleven began tilting her head playfully to the knight’s left, “if a child’s in charge…well, I can’t imagine that going too well.”

“He’d make bad choices?” Soren determined raising a brow.

“He’ll make _weak_ choices!” his father snarled. “History will tip the wrong way and the forces of Xadia will crush, not only Katolis, but all the human kingdoms!”

“Not to mention, the boys have been kidnapped by an _elf,_ ” Eleven reminded, “who know’s what terrible things she’s doing to brainwash them into betraying humanity. After all, they’re only children. Would you want a puppet king on the throne?”

Soren bit his lip, she did have a point, “Ok…so, I’m supposed to come back with the news that they’re dead?”

“Yes, what don’t you understand?” she grumbled.

The blonde couldn’t help but gulp, “What if…what if I find them alive?”

“Oh, you’ll know the right thing to do. After all, _accidents_ happen all the time. _Tragic_ accidents. My son, this won’t be easy, but you are strong.”

Soren nodded, slowly backing away only to shiver as a sing-song voice called out to him, “And remember cutie, don’t breathe a word about this to _anyone_. I’d _hate_ to see what’d happen if someone found out.”

Seeing his son walk away, Viren sighed, turning to walk towards the other door, “It will be a burden for me to take the throne, and someday Soren will understand when he takes it over after me.”

“Of course,” the Eleventh Sister smiled as Viren strode away. Leaning up against the wall, she gazed out over the lands, “Though, it’s not like he’ll get the chance.”

-.-

“All right,” Rayla groaned stretching her arms above her head as the group trudged up the mountain. “Let’s stop and eat. I’m starving!”

Setting his bags down, Trezac pulled out his cloak, fastening it over his shoulders and pulling his hood up. By the Ancients he hated the cold. “Here, I have a couple more ration bars,” he said tossing the bars out between them.

“Great,” Rayla winced taking the strange food again. To make it taste better, she reached into her knapsack to pull out moonberry juice, only to find herself glaring at an empty bottle. “Someone drank it all! _Who_ went through my stuff?!” she exclaimed holding up the evidence.

“Not me.”

“I didn’t touch your things!”

“Don’t look at me!”

The girl glared at the three boys, “Well I didn’t drink it. If none of you did it then who did?” The answer came as a hiccup from by her feet. All heads turned down to Bait, whom was glowing a different color as Agir sniffed him curiously. “Wait…did that little frog monster…?

“Bait wouldn’t do that!” Ezran defended. “You have no reason to think—” Bait hiccupped again, “Don’t accuse him!”

“Look at how he’s glowing!”

“Well, Bait glows different ways depending on how he’s feeling,” Ezran explained. “Like he has one color if he’s lonely, another when he’s hungry, or angry, or hangry!”

“That’s when you’re so hungry, you’re angry,” Callum provided as Rayla glared at him.

“I know what hangry means,” she grumbled as Trezac glanced aside nervously. Before now, he did not know what hangry meant. “So, what does that color mean?”

“Hmm, actually, I’ve _never_ seen him glow this way before,” Ezran said crouching in front of his pet. “Kind of a reddish, purplish, berry color…” Bait belched and Ezran hung his head in defeat, “Yeah he did it.”

-.-

Claudia gazed at a mirror brought back from Xadia with a frown, she turned away walking to the desk and grabbing several magic items. Picking up the bowl with her mixture, she walked back to the mirror. “Speak you true nature to me,” she spoke starting to incant her spell. A green blast erupted from her fingertips, harmlessly swirling around the mirror before dissipating. “Nothing?”

“What’s nothing?”

Yelping, Claudia turned around, freezing as her gaze landed on the Twelfth Brother. “Oh…hi Twelve,” she greeted nervously as the imposing man loomed behind her.

Gold eyes looked over her, and the sorceress couldn’t help but shiver. “What is it you’re working on?”

“Uh…it’s just this mirror that my father brought back from Xadia.”

“Hmm…interesting,” he mulled stepping past her to look over the mirror. “And what is the importance of this mirror?”

“We, uh, we aren’t sure,” she answered. “That spell I did was to try to get it to reveal its secrets. But, as you saw, it didn’t work.”

“Yes,” the Twelfth Brother mused, placing his hands behind his back. “But surely you must have something to make you think a mere mirror was important enough to cast spells upon?”

“Well, it was found in the liar of the Dragon King and Queen themselves,” Claudia remembered. “So it has to be powerful. A dragon wouldn’t even be able to see their reflection in a mirror this small.”

“Hmm,” Twelve raised his right hand and waved it. Claudia’s eyes widened as she felt a powerful push against the mirror, and she nearly saw a ripple in the magic before it went back to normal. “Yes…there is something powerful blocking our view. I am intrigued.” He turned to her and Claudia jumped as his dark gold eyes landed on her again. “Tell me. What do we try next?”


	9. On Thin Ice

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: hey guys, back for the next chapter of our story. Once again, this story idea’s owned by Gabeherdon308 and so are the OCs. I’m just the writer. I don’t own TDP or Star Wars.

“Seriously?” Claudia exclaimed. “This is one stubborn magic mirror.”

“You think I haven’t tried that?” Viren spoke up, causing his daughter and the male inquisitor to turn to him. “I’ve cast over eight different reveal spells, they all failed. At the end, I see nothing but my own frustrated face staring back at me.”

“Maybe it really is just a mirror,” Claudia shrugged sharing a glance with the Brother who rolled his eyes.

“Of all the treasures, artifacts, and relics in the lair of the Dragon King and Queen. This was the closest to their bed. It must be important.”

“In all likelihood,” the male inquisitor spoke. “I can feel something…powerful coming from it. Though my own abilities are prevented from seeing what is hidden here. Perhaps my sister…”

“I doubt it,” Viren grumbled glaring at the mirror again.

Gold eyes narrowed and Claudia shivered as she felt something… _dangerous_. “Perhaps if Sister and I could contact our people, see if they know anything?”

“That would be so helpful!” Claudia said before her father could reply. “Hear that mirror? We’re putting you on notice.”

With a scowl, Viren tossed the tarp back over the infernal relic, before turning to his daughter. “We have something to discuss, your mission.”

“To rescue the princes.”

“Yes, but you will have a secret mission that’s far more important,” Viren spoke. “Claudia,” he placed a hand on his daughter’s shoulder, “you must recover the dragon egg.”

“They have it with them, so it shouldn’t be a problem,” she shrugged.

“But the elf will be.”

“I can handle her. I’ve got room for a third mission if you need anything else while we’re out,” she chuckled.

“The egg can’t fall into the wrong hands. It’s too powerful, too dangerous,” Viren reminded. “Whatever happens, whatever accidents or tragedies may occur, above all else, you must return with that egg.”

“Good.”

“One question,” she prodded, “Say we’re attacked by giant bumble-scorps and they’re all buzzing around like bzzzz and flailing their scorps at us like bzz bzz bzz bzz and I’m forced to choose between saving the egg and saving Soren. What should I do?”

“It seems to me that your brother can handle himself just fine. I recommend getting the wea—the egg.”

“True, but what if he really needs my help?” Claudia reiterated. Seeing her father frown, she rolled her eyes, “Geez, tough crowd. It’s a joke. Relax, it’ll be fine.”

“The egg,” Viren answered as his daughter began to walk away. “If you have to choose, choose the egg.”

Claudia frowned slightly, looking down as she left the room, and with it, she failed to see the wide grin forming on the face of the inquisitor hiding in the shadows.

-.-

“Rayla, can you slow down? It’s getting a little tricky,” Ezran requested as he trudged through the snow that rose up to his knees.

“Rayla, come on!” Callum whined as he helped pull his little brother up. You’re the one who made us take this crazy route, at least let us keep up with you.”

“I just need to sit down, catch my breath,” Ezran panted flopping down in the snow.

“You know there is a solution,” Rayla grumbled hopping up onto a ledge, “you can let me carry the egg. You realize I could just take it right? I could just take it from you any time I wanted.”

“If you got past Trezac,” Callum muttered jumping up next to her with a warning glare. “And besides, threatening us, isn’t the best way to encourage us to trust you.”

“But I don’t! That’s the point!”

“Oh, congratulations! You haven’t threatened us and forced us to give you the egg?! You deserve a medal! You’re a hero!” Callum snapped.

“I could take it! I could return it to Xadoa on my own! And as a matter a fact—” Rayla was cut off as a palm slapped over her mouth. Glaring at the cause, she found Trezac covering her and Callum’s mouths, watching the slopes with wary eyes.

It was only then she could hear the slight cracking in the packed snow and ice up above.

Seeing the trails of cracks slowly grind to a stop, Trezac looked away from the cliffs to glare at the two arguing idiots. “Save your arguing for when we’re off the mountain. The last thing we need is an avalanche,” he warned slowly removing his hands, “Got it?”

“Yep.”

“Not a peep.”

Looking back up at the ledge, Trezac hopped down, pulling Ezran to his feet. “We need to get moving,” he whispered, “this area’s unstable. It’s not going to take much else to cause the mountainside to give.” Ezran nodded, picking up his pack and climbing up to join Rayla, Agir, and his brother. Trezac turned to grab Bait only to freeze in horror as the small creature belched, loudly.

For a moment all they could hear was Bait’s burp echoing over the silent hills, and it was only when they faded to background noise they heard the cracking. “Karabast!” Trezac cursed.

“Run!” Callum exclaimed and the group whirled on their heels sprinting back down the mountain as a loud roar began to approach from above.

Ezran tripped on the way down, causing Rayla to skid to a stop and grab his hand to help the boy up, making her yelp as pain shot up her arm. “What happened to your hand?” Ezran gasped seeing the purple fingers.

“Don’t worry about it! Just run!” she exclaimed leading him down the trail. Glancing behind her every now and then. “We’re not going to make it! It’s like a snownami!”

Callum slid to a stop, turning to face the white torrent. “Callum, what’re you doing?!” Trezac exclaimed.

“Get behind me!” he said and everyone clustered behind him. Getting the idea, Trezac stood to his left and thrust out a hand as Callum drew is rune. “Aspiro!”

Together, the padawan and mage held back the avalanche. At least until Callum ran out of breath. Without the support, Trezac felt the snow get past his own blocks as it crashed into them sending the group spiraling down the mountain. Fortunately, it was slow enough that they weren’t buried or anything super bad.

“Who’s not dead?! Sound off!” Callum called popping out of the snow.

“Yeah,” Trezac groaned from where he was sprawled by the edge of the frozen lake as Agir licked the snow caught on his cloak.

“WHERE’S THAT HICCUPING JUICE-THEIF FROG?!” Rayla exclaimed jumping to her feet.

“He’s right there!” Ezran pointed up the slope. “And he’s ok! We all made it!”

“Remind me to not let Master Skywalker fly the ship again,” Trezac muttered stumbling to his feet holding his head.

“I’ll go get the egg!” Ezran called, and all heads turned towards the boy as he slowly got to his feet, scooching towards the egg and picking it up.

Everyone’s hearts dropped to their stomachs when they heard the distinct sound of ice cracking. “Ez, don’t move, we’re coming to get you,” Callum called as the three slowly slid out onto the ice.

“Ez, you need to lie down and distribute your weight, it’ll help keep the ice from breaking,” Trezac called.

“But it’s already cracking!”

“Here,” Callum said crouching down and crawling over. “Hand it to me,” taking the egg from his brother, Callum stood up and Trezac smacked his forehead as the ice began to crack again.

“What now?” Rayla asked.

“You handle Callum, I’ll get Ezran,” Trezac said sliding away. “Ez, how’s the ice?”

“Uh…still cracking whenever I move,” the boy whimpered.

“Ok,” Trezac nodded. Slowly rising to his feet, he held out his hands. “Ezran, I’m going to have to force throw you. It’ll get you off the ice.”

“Just do it!”

Shoving his hands forwards, Trezac used the force to blast Ezran across the icy lake and into a snowdrift. Of course, naturally every action has an equal but opposite reaction; meaning Trezac ended up sliding almost halfway across the lake. Sitting up the Jedi looked nervously towards where the boy was, sighing in relief as he popped out of the snow.

“I’m sorry I was such a jerk before Rayla, we’re lucky to have you as a friend,” Callum said holding the egg out to the elven girl. “I do trust you.”

To their surprise, she took a few steps back, “No. Wait. I don’t deserve your trust. Not yet. I need to tell you the truth. This morning, the big rush is cause I was attacked by someone, a human. I fought him off but it was hard, because of this,” she held up her hand showing the darkening skin and the silver bracelet.

“You don’t need to do this right now Rayla,” Callum spoke up.

“Yes I do”

“This isn’t exactly a good time right now!”

“This is an assassin’s binding; a Moonshadow Elf ritual. Before I met you, I swore an oath, I bound myself…to end Prince Ezran’s life. And this binding will never come off while he’s alive. It’ll just get tighter and tighter till I lose my hand! But I’m ready to pay that price.”

Well that explained a lot. But for some reason Trezac felt guilt still coming off of her.

“Thank you, for telling us,” Callum nodded, “but we need to focus on the situation.”

“There’s one more thing. The night I met you, something bad happened…”

“Rayla, there’s no time!”

“Callum I need to tell you. The King—”

“JUST TAKE IT!” Callum exclaimed shoving the egg into her hands. Only to forget about her injured one.

Rayla gave a sharp cry of pain, the egg slipping from her hands and falling to the ice, breaking through and sinking down into the cold waters below.

“No!” Trezac exclaimed jumping in after it.

“TREZAC!” they all exclaimed crowding the edge of the broken ice.

“I’m going in after him,” Callum said only to be stopped as Rayla grabbed his arm.

“He’ll get it. We need to be up here to pull him out!” she argued.

Under the water, Trezac swam down towards the sinking light ahead of him. Pulling with the Force, he dragged the egg back up to him, grabbing it before turning around to swim back to the surface. His muscles screamed in pain at the shock of the freezing waters, and his lungs were starting to burn, but he couldn’t afford to drown right now.

His free fist pounded into ice above him and a few precious bubbles of air escaped his lips as he tried to find the hole he initially leapt through to get the egg. Unfortunately, everything looked the same down here.

Reaching to his belt, the padawan pulled a saber off his belt and activated it. The yellow blade burst to life, and he stabbed it up through the ice. The heat from his saber melted the ice it cut through, allowing two sets of hands to pull the slab of ice off as Trezac popped up, gasping for air. Holding the egg up, someone, probably Callum or Ezran, took the egg out of his hands as he grabbed Rayla’s while stabbing his saber into the ice again, pulling himself up into a shivering heap.

“T-the e-eg-gg,” Trezac stuttered, “h-ow-w i-is i-it?”

“Not good, something’s wrong!” Ezran said holding a dark egg with a barely noticeable glow.


	10. Human or Monster

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: hey y’all! Back for another chapter I see? Anyways, y’all know the drill at this point. I don’t own TDP or Star Wars, the OCs of this story belong to Gabeherndon308, and I think that about covers it. Now, on with the story!

“Ez, you should really try to sleep,” Callum encouraged as he glanced at his younger brother. Blue eyes looked his way and the boy sat up, his cloak falling open.

“I—I,” he sneezed, wiping his nose, “I’m fine.”

“You aren’t fine, you need rest.”

The younger boy gave him a glare, “Trezac’s the one who fell in the water.”

“And look at him,” Callum said motioning to the padawan curled up under his cloak by the fire, “he’s _resting_.”

Rather the continuing to argue, Ezran got up, walking over and sitting beside his brother. “What are you…oh,” he trailed off seeing the drawing on the pages of the book.

“When you were on the ice, I was so scared. I thought I was going to lose you like we lost her,” Callum confessed looking over the drawing of his mother. “But you made it. And now I can’t stop thinking, that maybe she was watching over us. If she knew what we were trying to do, she’d be proud. And,” a smirk came to the elder prince’s face, “she would yell at you to sit closer to the fire and bundle up!”

“I know,” the boy whined trudging over and plopping down beside Bait, careful not to wake Trezac or Agir.

“She’s beautiful,” a new voice spoke and Callum glanced up to see Rayla had returned. “She’s your mother?”

“Yeah.”

Hearing the tone of his voice, Rayla glanced away trying to find a new road of conversation. “Uh, I found some moonberries,” she said, changing the subject. “These should keep us full for a day, this way we don’t need to keep wasting Trezac’s…ration bars?” More like she didn’t want to keep eating the bland things but they didn’t need to know that. “And, I found these for you and Trezac,” she reached into her pocket and pulled out green berries, “Bogeyberries! Ancient Xadian cure for the common sniffles.” She handed Ezran two and the boy opened his mouth to eat them. “Nope, they don’t go in your mouth.”

“Uh…”

She rolled her eyes, “To cure a stuffy nose, you’ve gotta stuff ‘em up your nose.”

“Oh, seems doable.”

Glancing behind the brothers, her gaze flickered between the egg and the stupid human that saved it. “How’s the egg doin’?”

They all looked towards the egg, whose glow was darker than it’d been before, “I don’t think the egg’s getting better; it was glowing so brightly before, but now it’s dim and flickery.”

“It’s even dark than when I left,” Rayla sighed. “And Trezac?”

“Not sure,” Callum answered honestly. “He’s been out for a while. But he’s not coughing anymore, so I think he’s getting better.”

“At least there’s some good news,” Rayla sighed sitting by the fire.

“We need to find help,” Ezran spoke.

-.-

“There it is, a town!” Rayla exclaimed in relief as the group trudged over another hill. “I knew I saw smoke. Maybe we can find help.”

“Ok, sure. We might find a dragon egg expert, but we will definitely find a bunch of elf-hating humans,” Callum reminded.

“No problem,” Rayla smirked. Reaching into Ezran’s bag, she pulled out his cloak and put it on, covering her horns and pointed ears. “Meet human Rayla!”

“I’m not sure that’s gonna cut it,” Callum muttered.

The elvish assassin scoffed, “Just wait. Once I pair my disguise with my perfect human impression, the illusion will be complete.”

“Really?”

“Greeting, fellow humans! Human fellows! I sure do like hanging out with other humans,” Rayla began elbowing Callum playfully, “and talking about things like money and starting wars.”

Trezac sighed, rubbing the bridge of his nose, “I know I’m new to Xadia, but where I come from. No one would buy that.”

“What makes you so sure?” Rayla challenged and the tired padawan raised a brow at her.

“I was an apprentice to one of the most successful undercover-operatives of the jedi, he was a master of manipulation. Trust me, that act is clearly screaming _I don’t belong here_ ,” he deadpanned. “Not to mention,” he raised his hand wiggling his fingers.

Rayla looked down at her hand and nearly facepalmed. Wasn’t like she could suddenly make a fifth finger appear out of thin air. “I need some kind of a…hand disguise.”

“You mean gloves?”

“Look! Snow Elf!” she exclaimed racing towards a pile of snow with a carrot nose, button eyes and sticks for arms.

“I’m pretty sure that’s a snowman,” Ezran corrected.

“As long as it’s not any of the creatures from Hoth,” Trezac grumbled following them.

Rayla removed the gloves that were hanging from the end of the sticks, putting them on with a grin, “Hand-disguise!” she said only to frown as the pinky fell.

“Here,” Callum said breaking off small pieces of the branches and taking the gloves. He shoved the small wood pieces into the last finger and handed them back to Rayla. “Now try it.” She raised her hand and while the finger looked solid, it still flopped around. “Just don’t shake hands with anyone.”

“Just walkin’ into town without a care in the world despite my sub-century life expectancy,” Rayla smiled, trying to act human.

In response, Callum shushed her, Trezac groaned tossing his own cloak hood up, and Ezran just smiled at her, “That’s the spirit.”

Walking into the main square, they stopped seeing a large crowd surrounding a redheaded man standing on the edge of a fountain. “I defended the border against all manners of horrors and monstrosities. Things you can’t even imagine. There’s nothing I fear now!”

Callum grabbed their arms, and drug them further into the crowd to get a better view.

“In fact,” the man continued, “I wager I could defeat any challenger here, with nothing but my dagger!” The crowd gasped and the man stepped off the fountain looking over the surrounding people before pointing to a random citizen. “What about you?”

The man smirked, ready to walk forwards and face the challenge, only to have his wife yank him back and drag him off.

“Maybe…you,” he turned pointing right at Rayla.

With a scowl, Trezac moved to grab his own sabers when the crowd began cheering as someone stomped into the impromptu arena. The size of the man made the padawan blink as he shared confused glances with his comrades, since when could humans get that big?

The giant chuckled, yanking a massive sword off his back, “This isn’t even my biggest sword.”

“I’ll take that bet!”

“My money on the big guy!”

“Mine too!”

Trezac massaged his temples in annoyance, why was he getting a distinct reminder of Hondo and his gang from this spectacle? Something in the force rippled gently, and the padawan perked to attention, looking around for what caused the disturbance. Something was wrong.

“They’re distracted, we should go,” Callum said.

Trezac wasn’t going to argue. They needed to leave.

“Wait,” Rayla—of all people—protested grabbing their arms. “You’ll wanna see this.”

The giant swung his blade down, forcing the short ginger to dodge. Landing on his feet, the man pulled out a dagger, one that was glowing red hot like a lightsaber. Green eyes went wide, was that what he’d been sensing a minute ago?

As if to answer his question, the man sprinted forwards, slicing the tip off the sword like it was made of butter. Ducking under the next swing, the knife cleaved the sword in two one more, before braking it with one last strike as it was reduced to a short hunk of metal just above the hilt.

“Well, I certainly hope that wasn’t your biggest sword,” the knife-wielder taunted as the crowd laughed causing the man to run off sobbing. “Ha! Anyone else?”

“What was that?” Callum asked.

“A sunforged blade!” Rayla grinned.

“Wow, I can’t believe I just saw a real sunforged blade!” Ezran exclaimed. “What’s a sunforged blade?”

“In Xadia, Sunfire elves can make magic weapons that stay as hot as the moment they’re forged for hundreds of years,” Rayla began to explain. “See that?” she pointed as the man sheathed the dagger, “The sheath’s inscribed with special runes to protect him from the heat. Otherwise, well…”

“His pants would be on fire?” the youngest prince offered.

“Yeah, his legs too,” she chuckled.

“Reminds me of my lightsabers,” Trezac murmured removing his hood.

“Lightsaber?” they asked and he tapped the two strange blades on his belt, the ones the burst to life and glowed.

“So that’s what those’re called,” Rayla commented. She had to admit, the weapons did seem similar. But…there was just something, different about the padawan’s weapons. They didn’t behave like normal sunforged blades, they didn’t even have sheaths or runs to protect him from the heat. And not to mention, what kind of blade just popped out when it was needed? It was strange. And it probably wasn’t as hot as a sunforged blade either.

“Rayla,” Callum spoke up, “if that blade can cut through a steel sword like butter…would you say it could cut through pretty much anything?”

“Not pretty much anything, it can cut through anything,” she replied before her eyes widened as she caught what he was hinting at. “My wrist binding!”

“You have to go get that dagger.”

“But what about the egg?”

“Ezran and I will find help for the egg, you and Trezac handle the knife. We’ll meet here back at the statue.”

“How will you guys even get the dagger?”

“Asking nicely,” Rayla smirked whirling on her heel and sprinting towards the road the man walked down with Trezac on her heels.

“Rayla,” Trezac spoke up grabbing her arm and slowing her down into a walk, “we can have to be careful. If anyone finds out…well, I don’t think it’ll go well.”

“Then what do you suggest we do?” she growled.

“Just follow my lead,” he replied cryptically, leading the way after the man tossing his own hood up.

Their target glanced behind him, spotting the two cloaked figures following, and Trezac could sense a spike of fear from the man. He broke into a sprint, forcing the two trained warriors to chase after him. Force-jumping onto a roof, they chased him over the rooftops till he cornered himself in an alley.

“I won that money fair and square,” he growled holding up the dagger.

“We don’t care about the money,” Trezac said lowering his hood.

“Then what do you want from me?”

“We need to borrow you dagger,” Rayla spoke up lowering part of her glove to show the binding, “to cut this.”

“Oh, you just wanna borrow it?” he scoffed.

“Fine, the you hold it!” she interrupted. “Just cut this thing off me!”

“But it’ll burn you.”

“I don’t care! Just please do it!” she pleaded.

The man nodded and stepped forwards, taking Rayla’s hand. Looking at her for a moment, before turning his head down to focus on what he was doing. The tip of the burning blade, slipped under the binding, but the only thing that caught fire, was Rayla’s glove.

Yelping in pain, she yanked the glove off, shaking her burned hand.

The man gasped, “You’re one of them!”

The girl’s eyes went wide as Trezac facepalmed. “Who me? I’m just a simple human girl who likes human things,” she tried.

“No! You’re an elf!”

“Fine, I’m an elf!” she said lunging forwards and snatching the dagger from his hand. Seeing his shocked expression, she rolled her eyes, “Calm down, this’ll only take a second.”

Lowering the blade to the binding, Rayla grimaced at the initial sting. She bit her lip, praying it’d be enough to handle the pain to get the binding off, but unfortunately, her instincts got the better of her. Releasing another cry of pain, she dropped the dagger, looking in horror at the binding still firmly planted on her wrist. “No! Nothing can cut this stupid binding!”

“Just take the dagger,” the man begged, “don’t hurt me please.”

Trezac rolled his eyes, using the force to summon the blade to his palm. “Here,” he said handing it back to the rightful owner.

“You—You’re human? But…she’s an elf!” he exclaimed. Narrowing his eyes, Trezac yanked the man to his feet. “She isn’t an elf,” he said waving his hand in front of the man’s face.

“She…isn’t an elf.”

“She’s a normal human.”

The man nodded slowly, sounding a little more convinced, “She’s a normal human.”

“Now, you’re going to go…do something and forget about this,” he continued.

“I’m going to do something and forget about this,” he repeated slowly stumbling away like a zombie.

Rayla, meanwhile, stood there completely horrified. “Trezac…what…what did you do to him?”

Trezac glanced away, tossing the hood of his cloak over his head. “Doesn’t matter. Let’s go find the others.”


	11. The Cursed Caldera

Chapter 11

**A/N: here we are for the next chapter! Remember, I don’t own this story or franchise, I’m just the writer.**

“Did you find the knife guy? Did you get his knife?” Ezran asked as he and Callum raced over to the statue, not noticing that their two companions were sitting almost on opposite sides from each other.

Rayla sighed, raising her purple hand, “No, the sunforge blade didn’t work. The good news is the binding will fall off naturally, when my hand does.”

“Ah Rayla, I’m sorry,” Callum apologized.

“It’s find, now, after what happened back there,” she tossed a glare at Trezac, “I need some good news. Tell me what happened with the egg?”

“Um…well, not—not yet. But maybe, so yes? In a way?” the elder brother sputtered.

“That’s not exactly an answer,” Trezac remarked.

“We learned about a miracle healer. Someone who might be able to help the egg,” Ezran informed, “and maybe your hand too!”

Rayla perked up at that, “Really?”

“Why do I sense a but?” Trezac muttered crossing his arms.

Callum laughed sheepishly, “Y-yeah, the only downside is, she lives up there,” he pointed up to the imposing mountain before them, “the Cursed Caldera.”

“Please tell it’s named that cause it was discovered by the great explorer Sir Phineas Cursed.”

“Well actually cause it’s infested with horrible monsters,” Callum answered.

“Yeah, I know,” she sighed standing up. “Who knows, maybe our resident Dark Mage could handle them.”

“What?” Callum flinched, “I—I’m not—”

“Not you! Him!” she pointed at Trezac. “You still haven’t explained to me what exactly you did to that man back there!”

“Whoa, wait, what happened?” Callum interjected.

“I’ll tell ya what,” this guy found out I’m an elf and Mr. Dark Magic waltzes over, waves his hand and the man’s stumbling off like a zombie!” she accused.

“For the last time what I do isn’t magic!” he growled. “It’s the Force! And even if it was magic! I’d never use the Dark Side! Not after I lost _everything_ to it!”

“Maybe you’re just saying that to trick us!”

“Ugh! What I did wasn’t magic, it was a simple Force mind trick. We use on those of weak will to get out of tough situations, _like_ the one you were in!” he growled. “If it wasn’t for me, you’d be getting chased by an angry mob. So you’re welcome,” pushing past Rayla, Trezac lead the way towards the mountain.

-.-

“I think we’re safe,” Callum said as they ducked behind a tree.

“Safe, sure,” Rayla drawled removing her cloak and shoving it back in Ezran’s bag to help warm the egg, and how are we supposed to find this miracle healer?”

Movement caught their attention and Rayla reached for her blade as a pair of glowing green eyes emerged from the underbrush, revealing a wolf and a young girl on its back. “Come with me. I’ll help you find her,” she smiled turning the hound. “This way!”

Bounding up the steep trail, the group scrambled after her till they ended up on a smooth path,, slowing down to a steady walk as the ascended the mountain. “So, uh, hi there,” Rayla greeted waving at the girl with her good hand and glancing at the wolf, “who are you?”

“Me?” the girl turned. “I’m Ellis, and this is Ava,” she patted her pet. “She’s a wolf.”

“Really, I thought bird,” Rayla smirked before laughing as Ava licked her cheek.

“Oh, I should’ve introduced you guys,” Callum facepalmed. “Ellis, this is Rayla and Trezac. We met Rayla when she…well, broke into our Castle trying to kill Ezran.”

“But that doesn’t matter now cause we’re friends!” Ezran quickly added.

“And we met Trezac when he crash landed from the sky into our kingdom.”

Ellis just merely smiled, “People meet in so many interesting ways!”

“So how do we find this healer?” Trezac questioned lowering his hood.

“Truth is, I never found her, she found us,” Ellis answered. “We were hiding in a big, twisty hallow tree up near the rim.”

“Then we need to get to that tree, even if it takes all night,” Callum nodded.

“Wait,” Rayla protested, “that’s all we have to go on? A weird tree where this miracle healer showed up three years ago?”

“You have a better idea?”

“As a matter a fact…no. No I don’t,” she grumbled.

Ellis smiled again, leading Ava to the front of the group, “I can get us up. The healer will find us there and she’ll save the egg!”

“And your hand too,” Ezran added.

“Don’t worry about my hand, the egg’s all that matters now,” Rayla reassured rubbing her wrist.

The climb up the mountain was hard, involving leaping over gaps in the narrow path and climbing up steep slopes. Coming onto the ridge, Ellis lead Ava forwards, admiring the sunset, “It’s beautiful. It’s like the sky’s been painted with honey.”

“Wow,” Ezran breathed taking in the view.

Ellis laughed turning to them with a wide smile on her face, “Too bad that it also means the nightmare’s about to begin.”

“What do you mean?”

“Oh you know,” she shrugged, “enormous monsters, indescribable terrors, stuff like that.”

“Stuff like that,” Callum chuckled dryly, “yeah.”

“I’ve probably seen worse,” Trezac shrugged.

“Considering what you do to people’s heads, why am I not surprised,” Rayla bit back.

“Just so you know, the higher we go, the worse it’ll get.”

“Sounds like a blast,” the padawan sighed removing his cloak and shoving it into his bag.

“All right! Let’s go!” Rayla sarcastically cheered before she was stopped by Callum.

“No wait, we need a plan,” he said.

“How do you plan for indescribable terrors?” Ezran questioned. “I feel like you need to be able to describe them first.”

“Um…horrifying! Blood-curdling. Creepy, but in a super extreme way that feels like it’s lighting you soul on fire,” Ellis offered with a smile

The remaining members of the group tossed concerned glances at each other. “Uh…I think that helps?”

“Wait!” Callum said, “Wait, wait wait!”

“We’re waiting?”

“I’ve got it!” the elder prince jumped. “Flash! Woof! Whoosh! Slish-slash!”

“…Awesome!” Ellis said before turning to Rayla and whispering, “Um, is he ok?”

The elf chuckled, “I think he’s finally cracked under the pressure.”

“No that’s the plan,” he answered and Trezac smacked his forehead muttering about owing someone money for finding a worse planner than someone. “Ezran, you have the first job! You hold Bait in the ait so he can flash and blind whatever monster we face. Flash!”

“Wait…but them I’m not really doing anything. I’m just kind of holding up Bait.”

“You’re support, every team needs a great support,” Callum answered. “Ellis, Ava, Agir, you’re next. You’ll run around in circles and bark to confuse the monster.”

“I dunno, do you think you can run around and bark a lot Ava?” The wolf barked in reply. “She’s ready!”

“Then me, I’ll use my windbreath spell, Whoosh!”

Ellis gasped, “You’re going to cast a spell?!”

“It’s just a simple rune thing I picked up,” Callum brushed off with a wave of his hand. “No big deal.”

“Yeah, he’s gonna blow on the monster, ruffle it’s fur real good,” Rayla teased.

“It’s that or the half of the lightning spell I know,” he retorted. “Or, we can have Trezac do his magic thing. Shove the monster back?”

“That’s more a defense move, not attack,” Trezac replied ignoring the wary glance Rayla gave him.

“See, anyways, that’ll leave you and Rayla, the finishers,” Callum continued. You two will take out the blinded, distracted, windblown monster with your blades! Slish-Slash!”

Rayla refrained from scowling at the prospect of having to work with Trezac. After what happened earlier, she didn’t trust the human as far as she could throw him. But, she supposed it was better than having the chance to use his own strange magic against them. “My hand’s in pretty bad shape,” she said flexing her bad wrist, “I’ll only be able ti use one blade.”

“Ok, then you’re slash and Trezac is slish-slash!”

“No, this is my slish hand,” she smirked as Callum balked.

“Really?”

“No, not really ya dummy,” she smirked before facepalming as she remembered something. “Wait, you may be a dummy, but you’re no fool!”

“I’m pretty sure that’s a contradiction,” Trezac muttered crossing his arms as Rayla grabbed Callum.

“Am I supposed to feel flattered by this?”

“You said Claudia called you a fool when you interrupted her lightning spell,” she recalled getting a nod from the boy, “but, I’ll bet she was actually trying to say _fulminis_ , the draconic word for lightning!”

Green eyes went wide as the elder brother picked up on what she was saying. “So if fulminis is the trigger word—”

“Then you know the spell for lightning!” Ezran interrupted.

Callum grinned, pulling out the primal stone. “Revised plan! Flash! Woof! Zap! Slish-Slash!”

“Wonderful,” Trezac grumbled turning to walk away.

-.-

“So, who exactly is it that we’re coming to visit down here?” the Eleventh Sister smiled trailing behind Viren with a skip in her step. “I’m guessing someone important with all that food, but why would they be in a dungeon?”

Viren sighed, opening the door and the woman, finally went quiet as she took in the elf. Stepping inside, Viren set his staff aside and knelt down in front of the prisoner. “If you don’t eat, you’ll die.”

“I am already dead,” the elf spat back.

“Not really; you don’t look dead,” Eleven spoke crouching beside him. “And you certainly don’t _feel_ dead. Though, that hand…” she got up grabbing the elf’s hand and twisting, causing the prisoner to give a sharp cry of pain. “Nope, you can still feel it…good.”

Viren took a slow breath, finding himself slightly unnerved by the gleam in her eyes. “I went out of my way to acquire some rare Xadian fruits,” he spoke again holding a few of the delectable morsels up, “How remarkable? So strange and exotic,” he picked up a knife slicing the peel away from one, “and these Xadian oranges, no seeds. Incredible.” Holding out a slice, he raised a brow as his prisoner scoffed at the food, turning away. “No?” he plopped the slice into his mouth. “I understand the whole honor in not eating thing, but at least drink something,” he offered a cup, holding it out, “don’t worry it’s berry juice.”

“Ugh,” Eleven scoffed stomping forwards and pushing Viren aside, “you’re being too kind Viren,” she turned to look down on the prisoner, “and you, how rude, to decline such offers from your hosts. If we were back in my land you’d be punished for such a disgrace to your kind hosts. But, lucky for you, we need you alive.”

The human reached out her hand and Runaan gasped as his throat suddenly felt constricted. He couldn’t breathe. Why couldn’t he breathe? Wide eyes turned to the mage, her gold eyes gleaming in malice as she was trying to choke the life out of him. She strode forwards, the pitcher flying up into her hand without even a spell passing her lips. A hand grabbed his hair roughly, yanking his head back and suddenly the pressure around his neck was gone. However, instead of a gasping breath of air he’d been expecting his mouth and throat burned as berry juice was dumped. Sputtering he coughed whatever got into his lungs out, wheezing as the woman tossed the pitcher aside looking bored.

“There, that wasn’t so hard.”

It was then the other mage took a step forwards, looking, dare he say, almost as disturbed as he was. “Um, well, we have a proposition for you. I just need you to look at an object and tell me what it does. After that, I’ll unchain you and you can walk out of here.”

The woman made another annoyed sound and Runaan couldn’t help but flinch as she strolled back over, crouching in front of him with narrowed gold eyes. “You will cooperate with us,” she spoke slowly, waving her hand. He gasped as he felt something dark brush against his own mind, trying to subject it to its will. He knew human magic was vile, but this…it was beyond evil. Narrowing her eyes at him, an almost insane smile came to her face, “You’re a strong one, mind tricks won’t work on you will they? You’re gonna be such a fun toy till I break you.”

“I told you, I am already dead,” he ground out, trying to sound braver than he currently felt.

It didn’t appear to work as he smile impossibly grew wider, “Ooh, is that _fear_ I sense?” she purred.

“I believe it’s a Moonshadow Elf philosophy, accepting one is already dead so you don’t fear it,” Viren interrupted.

“So we need to find something he fears more!” she smiled bouncing to her feet. “This is gonna be so fun!”


	12. Shifting Shadows

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: hey guys, back for the next chapter. Good to see y’all again, remember, I’m just the writer Gabeherdon98 owns the OCs.

“Well it’s dark,” Callum remarked, “but I think the scariest thing I’ve seen so far is an angry cricket. And he’s more like, mildly annoyed.”

“Are you sure this is the Cursed Caldera?” Ezran asked. “Or did we accidently wander up Humdrum Hill?”

“Maybe we took a wrong turn and wound up Sleepy Slope,” Rayla added with a chuckle.

“I bet we made that turn at the Boring Boulders,” Trezac shrugged as the others chuckled.

“I’ll have to check my map but I’m fairly certain I recognize the unmistakable topography of Mt. Monotonous!” Callum chimed in, receiving nothing in reply save for the annoyed cricket.

“Anyways,” Ellis began, “it is a little odd that nothing bad has happened yet. I SEE A HUGE SCARY MONSTER!” They all jumped turning to face is as Ellis laughed, “But don’t worry, it’s dead.”

“Then why did you say it like that?!” Callum grumbled.

“SAY IT LIKE WHAT?!”

“Ellis,” Trezac spoke up, “just because we haven’t run into anything yet, doesn’t mean we won’t if you keep yelling.”

“Whoa, I’ve never seen anything like this,” Ezran said looking over the dead beast. It kinda reminded the boy of a badger, but with the horns and hooves of a goat, the face of a crocodile, and the teeth of well…they were really big teeth.

“Reminds me of the beasts on Orto Plutonia,” Trezac muttered approaching it running his fingers over the strange bite mark.

“Don’t touch it!” Callum exclaimed as Trezac continued to ignore him.

The body felt warm, and it looked fresh. This thing couldn’t have been killed that long ago. Pulling his hand back, the jedi frowned as he noticed the distinct lack of blood on his fingers. His fingers should’ve been coated, not barely holding and drops. “Something’s drained all the blood.” Looking at the bite again, Trezac couldn’t help but slowly go pale as he took in its shape. “Uh…your planet wouldn’t happen to have Rathars, would it?” he chuckled nervously.

“What’s a Rathtar?”

A low growl came from behind the dead beast, and they all slowly looked up as a worm-like creature with four eyes loomed over them. “Thank the Force it’s not a Rathtar!”

“But it is a huge scary monster!” Ellis reminded.

“Oh, right,” Trezac said. As the beast began to slither towards them, the others fell back as Trezac used a Force throw to put more distance between them and it.

“The plan!” Callum called as he raced to join them. “Remember the plan!”

“Ok! Where’s Bait?” the boy called turning to his pet. “BAIT! You’re supposed to—AH!”

“Too soon!” Callum called as they all covered their eyes, partially blinded by the blinding light from the glow-toad.

“I can’t see!”

“None of us can!”

Sensing something moving towards them Trezac threw out a force blast, wincing as he heard Rayla give a startled yelp as she and the monster were blasted back. “TREZAC! YOU JERK!”

“Ok! I shouldn’t do the lightning if I can’t see!”

“No lightning!”

“Ok! New plan: SCATTER!” Callum screamed.

“To distract the monster?!”

“NO JUST TO GET AWAY AND LIVE!” Callum answered sprinting pass with the creature on his heels. Ellis rode over on Ava, Agir running right beside them as Callum hopped on the wolf and they scrambled up the cliffside.

Running with Rayla and Ezran, they stopped at the base of a tree. “You can climb right?” Trezac asked.

Ezran nodded and Rayla quickly helped hoist the boy up before she pulled out her sword as the monster came slithering towards them. Pulling out his own blade, Trezac lunged forwards swiping the saber across the monster’s snout.

It gave a shrill shriek, spinning away and slamming Trezac with its tail, knocking the padawan back into a tree. “TREZAC!”

The air was knocked out of his lungs as he slammed to the ground, and in an attempt to take a breath in response he ended up getting a lungful of dirt. Coughing, Trezac stumbled to his feet, his vision swimming as several images of the monsters slithered towards him, slowly morphing back into one. It gave a shrill cry as the three flaps forming the slug-creature’s mouth opened up to reveal the mess of circular teeth inside, as it lunged at him Trezac rolled under it. Using another force push, the padawan panted as it once again slid back, giving him time to leap up into the nearest tree, high above its reach.

“TREZAC? ARE YOU OK?”

“Fine,” he called back. Another set of coughs made him hunch over as his airways made an attempt to get whatever dirt got in out. Pulling back, the young jedi couldn’t help but frown at the red spittle now on his hand.

“SO WHAT DO WE DO NOW? I THINK THAT THING’S DOWN THERE WAITING FOR US!” Rayla’s voice echoed over the grove.

“WE DON’T EVEN HAVE THAT MUCH BLOOD!”

“I KNOW! WE’D BE A VERY UNSATISFYING SNACK!”

As if in reply, the monster gave a hiss in return and Trezac leaned against the tree trunk with a sigh, closing his eyes as his head began throbbing. Seems like they were going to be there for a little while.

“I’M SORRY MY PLAN WAS A MESS,” Callum apologized.

“NAH! YOUR PLAN WAS FINE! OUR EXECUTION WAS A BIT OFF. IT CAME OUT MORE AS: ARGH! OOPS! HELP! RUN!” Rayla replied.

Callum sighed in defeat.

-.-

“Come on,” Eleven teased as she crouched in front of the prisoner, “you’ve gotta tell me something eventually. It’s getting boring, and I don’t do boring.”

“I am already dead,” Runaan ground out again, his throat feeling raw from the hours he’d spent under the subjugation of this insane mage.

“Here we go again,” she drawled sounding annoyed. Standing up, she walked over to his bad arm, taking a finger in hand. He grimaced as pain from his slowly dying nerve receptors shot through him, but he couldn’t break, not now. What he hadn’t expected was the absolute agony when she yanked his finger back with a sharp snap. A scream ripped its way out of the elf’s throat, meanwhile Eleven could only stand there looking quite pleased with herself. “Oh! It’s even more sensitive than earlier! This is gonna be so fun! So come on, scream for me.” This time, she turned and roundhouse kicked his bound arm in a downward sweep and a sadistic smile. “Cause no one’s coming to save you.”

-.-

“Oh Viren, you’re here,” Eleven greeted with a wide smile as the High Mage of Katolis shoved the heavy mirror into the prisoner’s cell.

“Yes…what are you doing down here Eleven?”

The inquisitor gave a giggle bouncing in place. “Just having fun with the prisoner,” she replied hopping to the side to give Viren a full view of her handiwork, “no big deal. It’s not I intend to break my new toy yet. There’s so much I want to do to him!”

Viren swallowed as he took in the damage. How…how was the elf still alive? He didn’t look alive, but the loud wheezes he gave said otherwise. Each of the prisoner’s fingers on his bad hand had been twisted to impossible angles and he could see a clear break in the same arm. And that wasn’t even the worst of it.

Licking his suddenly dry lips, he took a breath and stepped forwards, “In a moment, I will remove this cover and you will tell me what you know. Understood?” Viren didn’t get a response but in the prisoner’s state he wasn’t exactly expecting one. Sighing, he knelt down in front of the elf. “I’ve brought something I hope you’ll find motivating.” Reaching into his pocket he pulled out a pouch letting the jingling of the metal inside draw the elf’s attention.

“You’re more foolish than I thought,” Runaan ground out. “Don’t you know only humans can be bribed?”

“Well, I have seen many other races get bribed, not just humans,” Eleven spoke coyly twirling a lock of her hair. “Don’t think too highly of yourself. I’d hate to have to teach you another lesson.”

“Oh, this isn’t a bribe,” Viren said dumping the contents to the floor. “It’s a threat. Go on take a closer look.”

Runaan went pale when he saw what they actually were. “You’re a monster!”

“Let me see!” Eleven squeaked sitting down and picking up the objects with barely contained glee. “Ooooh! Viren you _have_ to teach me how to do _this_!”

-.-

“It seems to be hanging in there,” Rayla said kneeling beside Ezran as he cradled the egg, trying to keep it warm, “barely.”

“I’m so sorry I messed up the plan,” Ezran apologized hugging the egg a little tighter.

“You should cut yourself a break, everyone messes up sometimes,” she reassured. “Or in my case, all the time.”

“What’re you talking about?”

“Trust me, if the plan hadn’t gotten messed up when Bait flashed, I’m sure it would’ve flopped when it was my turn,” she grumbled, “then Trezac would’ve had to ‘save the day’, again.”

“Are you kidding? From what I can tell you’re awesome at everything.”

“Well it’s true I am pretty awesome at everything,” she smiled before glaring at the ground, “right up until the moment it really matters. That’s when I just, poof—screw things up.”

“What do you mean?”

“I don’t know, I hesitate, think too much and get confused about the right thing to do. and the next thing I know, I failed. Like when Trezac and I were getting the knife. We were doing so well till I messed up and revealed myself. If Trezac didn’t step in with his weird magic trick we probably would’ve been chased down by an angry mob.”

“Wait…are you jealous?” Erzan probed.

“Of Trezac?” she scoffed lying down, “no. It’s not like he always saves the freakin’ day.”

“You save the day too.”

“Yeah right,” she grumbled. “He doesn’t mess up. He wouldn’t have hesitated where I did. You see, on the morning I came to your castle, my team and I were discovered by a human guard. It was my job to chase him down and stop him…But when I caught him…he looked up at me and was so afraid. And the I just…let him go.”

“You felt for him,” Ezran stated.

“He was a human! My enemy!”

“Yeah,” Ezran said rolling onto his stomach much to Bait’s chagrin, “but then you saw he was scared. And you knew he was a person, just like you.”

“That shouldn’t have mattered! I had a job to do!” she growled sitting up. “Do you realize that I’m an assassin who hasn’t killed anyone?!”

“Uh, I think that’s a good thing,” Erzan replied, “and besides in your position, I bet Trezac would’ve done what you had too. You don’t need to compare yourself to him.” He sat up with a smile, “And thanks for failing you mission by the way, I like being alive.”

“I’m glad your alive Ezran, knowing you is definitely worth losing a hand for.”

“That’s the weirdest, nicest thing anyone’s ever said to me.”

“Eh who knows, maybe this is my unlucky hand and when it falls off, my luck will change,” she tried optimistically.

“That’s horrible.”

“Funny though.”

“Funny and horrible,” Ezran agreed.

Across the valley on the ledge, Callum sat with Ellis petting Agir and Ava as they tried to come up with a plan to get out of there. Peering over the edge, he sighed as he saw a dark shadow slither by. “Nope, still there.”

“I can’t believe you’re a mage,” Ellis rambled. “I’ve never met an actual mage before. You’re not at all like I expected.”

“What were you expecting?”

“You know, taller, long robes, wrinklier, super smart,” she answered eliciting a chuckled. “And maybe like a weird amulet or something?”

“Well I am in the market for a weird amulet if you know anybody.”

“And you’re so confident!”

“It’s funny to hear someone say that,” Callum sighed. “I don’t think of myself as confident.”

“Really, you should be, having all that incredible power.”

Callum chuckled half-heartedly, “You see, when I think confident I think of people like Rayla, or Trezac, or…or my dad. And the truth is, I don’t have that power,” he pulled out the Primal Stone, “this does. All the magic, all the power, all the confidence…it’s just because of this thing: a Primal Stone.”

“That Primal Stone needs you to do all that amazing stuff. Without you it’s just a neat, glowy ball.”

“I guess so,” Callum shrugged looking over the stone watching the storm rage inside it. “But without this, I’m nothing. Just a guy who can draw and make wry comments from time to time—and they’re not even that wry.”

“I’m not convinced,” Ellis argued. “I have a feeling you’d be pretty amazing, even without your magic ball.”

“Well you seem pretty great too,” Callum returned earning a bark from Ava. “And Ava’s also great!” From his right, Agir gave a yip and he sighed, ruffling the fire-fox’s fur, “Yes, so are you Agir, you’re just a fuzzy wuv-munkin!”

“HEY GUYS! I THINK THAT THING’S GONE!” Rayla shouted.

In his tree, Trezac fumbled into a sitting position, looking down at the foggy ground below. He didn’t hear anything; nor did he sense it lurking either. Jumping down from the tree, he used the force to soften his landing, grunting as he stumbled slightly.

“Haven’t seen it or heard it for a while,” Rayla said as the Jedi walked over to join the rest of them, “Seems like it moved on.”

“See ya sucker!” Ezran smirked. “Get it? Cause it’s a giant leech?”

“So more’ve a description than an insult?” Callum asked.

“A little of both.”

“It’s probably gone, but let’s not taunt it,” Rayla reminded.

Trezac found himself nodding in agreement. “We should get moving. It could decide to come back.”

“Exactly,” Rayla said. “There’s this little thing called irony: just as you say one thing, like you’re really sure about it, the opposite happens.”

As she was explaining it, Trezac’s eyes widened as he saw the leech slowly rising to its full height behind the others. “You mean like that?”


	13. Web of Lies

Chapter 13

**A/N: hey y’all, remember, I’m just the writer, the OCs belong to _Gabeherndon308_.**

“You mean like that?” Trezac questioned pointing up.

Whirling on their heels, everyone felt the blood drain from their face at the sight of the leech looming over them. With loud screams, the group leapt out of the way as the beast lunged, slamming its jaws down on where they’d previously been.

It first slithered after Ava and Ellis, who ran around it and lead it back closer to the others. Seeing what was like easier targets, the beast began to chase Rayla, who ran up a boulder and flipped back over the creature before continuing to run from it. Climbing back up in the tree, the elf’s eyes widened as she saw the monster chasing Ezran. Fortunately, Ellis and Ava saved him, racing over and scooping him up.

“FOCUS! WE CAN DO THIS!” Callum cheered from the side. “EZ AND BAIT, YOU’RE UP!”

Ezran nodded, picking up Bait and closing his eyes. Through their clids each of them could see the bright flash of light accompanied by the pained screech of the beast as it was blinded.

“YES! ELLIS, AVA, AGIR: WOOF!”

Ezran hopped off Ava, allowing the wolf and rider to take off after the flaming fire-fox barking and running around the disoriented beast. Its massive head swung between the difference sources of sound coming from all around it, trying and failing to pinpoint its prey.

“Ok, my turn for Zap,” Callum said drawing the lightning rune. The orb in his palm sparked to life and lightning crackled over him. “Here goes nothing,” he threw his hand forwards, “Fulminus!”

A near deafening crack split the air as the lightning shot across the battlefield, slamming into its unsuspecting target. The leech released a series of agonized screeches, writhing as its body spasmed.

“YES! GET ZAPPED! GET ZAPPED BY THE ZAP HAND!” Callum cheered.

“Can you be astounded later?” Rayla asked pulling out her sword alongside Trezac.

“Right, Rayla, Trezac, you guys got this: Slish Slash!”

Unfortunately, at that moment, the beast seemed to be able to reorient itself, turning towards the pair with a shrill cry. Startled, Rayla stumbled back, tripping over a rock and knocking her sword from her grasp. Her eyes widened as she saw the beast slithering towards her before it threw its head back with another pained cry.

Looking over, she saw the cause. Trezac had stabbed his glowing silver blade into the beast, causing the stench of burnt flesh to permeate the air. The leech lunged at him and Trezac leapt back, almost shimmering in a way her kind would do when they wanted to hide. His yellow blade arched out, slashing the monster across the muzzle causing it to whip its head in her direction with a cry. Seeing her chance, Rayla sprinted. With quick steps she approached the monster, swinging her sword up and through the beast’s neck for an effective kill. As it fell, the rolled out of the way, crouching next to Trezac.

“That was too close,” she panted.

“No kidding,” he agreed.

Seeing movement come from the monster, both gave startled cries as they the babies crawling their way out of their mother’s body. At that moment, Rayla was never more glad for the strange human’s magic as he sent the vile little creatures flying clear across the clearing.

“Still better than a Rathtar,” Trezac mumbled.

-.-

Runaan forced his eyes open as the door before him gave a creak as his captors entered. A shiver ran through him as he saw Eleven skip in behind the High Mage with a smile, tossing him a little wave as her companion set his materials down.

“Enough brooding elf,” the man spoke, “my patience wears thin.” He turned ripping the tarp off the strange object that’d been sitting in front of him for hours. Tell me what you know about this relic or I will seal your fate!”

A lump formed in his throat. No…no…it couldn’t be. How—how did the humans even get their hands on it?! Runaan trembled as he thought of what lied on the other side of that infernal prison. He would take Eleven’s “fun” any day over _that_.

“You—you have succeeded,” he stuttered shrinking away from the mirror.

“With what?”

“That mirror,” he gulped, “you have found something worse than death.”

The implication of what he just said hit him like a kick in the gut as he looked at the mage who’d been torturing him. Her golden eyes practically gleamed with excitement, and a wide smile split her face. What…what had he done? He’d just given vital intel to one of the most insane dark mages he’d ever encountered. And there was no doubt about it, she’d use this knowledge to inflict the most suffering.

“What is it?!” Viren demanded again, sounding more interested.

Steeling his resolve, Runaan glared up at them, “I will _never_ help you!”

This time, it was Viren’s face who went dark as he grabbed his staff, “Then, you are of no use to me.”

Eleven giggled as Runaan’s screamed permeated the dungeons, echoing almost melodically off the stone walls. Ancients, his fear felt so intoxicating.

“I always manage to capture the same expression,” Viren drawled as the elf’s screams were cut off.

She hopped over to Viren looking at the silver credit in his grey hand. “Oooh, defiance, giving way to absolute terror,” she purred. “That’s always the best.”

-.-

“There it is!” Ellis pointed up the mountain, “there’s the tree!”

All eyes scaled the slope of the mountain, landing on a single large tree high above the others illuminated by moonlight permeating through the clouds. “We’re almost there!” Callum grinned. “We can do this! We can make it to the rim. We’re going to find the healer and save the egg!”

Ava whimpered and Ezran bit his lip, looking distressed. “Oh no…”

“What is it?”

“I don’t know how to say this…”

“Just spill it,” Trezac said crossing his arms.

“Even if we make it to the rim, it doesn’t matter, there is no miracle healer…I’m sorry,” he answered setting Bait down.

“Stop being mysterious,” Callum said. “If you’re going to make a claim like that you owe everyone an explanation.”

“Ok, Ava told me—”

“Ugh, here we go again,” Callum rolled his eyes.

“No, it’s true!” the boy protested. “I can understand animals.”

“Well did you ask Bait?” Callum snapped. “He might disagree. Or maybe we can find a very opinionated squirrel around here!”

The younger prince threw himself over his backpack, “I knew you wouldn’t listen to me!”

“Ezran, I’m listening to you, but it is pretty hard to believe,” Rayla said kneeling beside him.

“I’ve always been different,” Ezran began, “it’s hard for me to make friends with other kids. I just feel like, I don’t fit in.”

“That’s ok, fitting in’s boring anyway,” Rayla reassured.

“But with animals,” he pet Bait, “somehow I have this connection. And a few years ago I realized I could understand what they were saying.”

“Can you believe this?” Callum scoffed.

“Why would he lie?”

“Because he’s a kid? Because it’s fun? Because he’s afraid to go up the mountain?!”

“I’m not afraid!”

Callum frowned, rolling his eyes, “Come on Ez, tell the truth.”

“Callum, similar things happen with my people,” Trezac shrugged. “Though…I’ve never heard of it to the extent Ezran has it. Mostly it’s just being able to control and calm down animals and get them to cooperate—not really talk with them.”

“Oh come on! The first time he did this I asked him to prove it! So Ezran said a group of Racoons told him that there was treasure hidden behind a waterfall. But when I went through the waterfall did I find treasure?”

“No,” Ezran sighed.

“But did my underwear get soaked?”

“Yes.”

“See, case closed!”

“The raccoons were being mischievous,” Ezran stated. “I’ve since then learned you can’t trust raccoons!”

“See! This is why you can’t make friends!” Callum snarled.

“Callum! Back off!” Rayla growled standing up.

“Do you believe me Rayla?” Ezran asked.

“Does it matter?”

“I believe you Ez,” Ellis smiled, “but I also know the Miracle Healer’s real, cause I have Ava.”

“Arguing over the fact isn’t going to change the fact that getting up that mountain is likely still our best bet at saving the egg,” Trezac spoke up. “We need to get going.”

-.-

“Huh, the higher we walk up this Caldera, the brighter the Moon Rune glows,” Callum commented.

“Maybe cause the higher we go the closer we are too the moon,” Rayla deadpanned.

“I dunno, something seems different this time.”

“I agree,” Trezac concurred glancing around warily. He could feel the hairs on the back of his neck standing up. “Something’s not right.”

A disembodied moan echoed over the area, causing all of them to stop in their tracks. “Did…did anyone else hear that?”

“Yep, ignoring it! Keep moving,” Rayla replied continuing to stomp forwards.

The moan came again and Trezac tentatively reached out with the force. The response he got almost made the young Jedi double over. This place had practically been saturated in something; something telling them to run, to turn back. He could feel it, all the pain, the fear, the anger, there was so much in this place.

_“Turn back.”_

“Trezac?” Ezran asked pulling the padawan from his connection. “Are you ok?”

“Fine,” he grunted. “Something really doesn’t want us going up this mountain.”

“What do you mean?” Callum questioned.

“This place, it’s covered with…magic,” he said unsure how to describe the sensation. “I tried to sense what was crying out, but instead all I got was something telling us to leave.”

“Maybe we should go,” Ezran whimpered as the moan echoed around them again.

“I’m going to share an old elven proverb with you,” Rayla said, “When travelling up a mountain trying to save a dying dragon egg and you hear a spooky sound, just keep walking.”

“That’s really specific,” Callum commented and they all flinched as another groan came.

“What if someone needs help?” Ellis asked trying to be optimistic.

Rayla sighed, sharing a look with Trezac before looking back to the prince. “Ez, you have a good heart. It’s super annoying.”

Standing up, she began to walk towards the cries when Trezac rested his hand on her shoulder. “Sure this is a good idea?”

“No, but he’s right, someone could need help,” Rayla pointed out. “I’ll check this out, you stay here and watch them.”

Before he could argue, she raced off into the fog, disappearing from sight. The padawan sighed, leaning against a tree and running his fingers though his hair. Ancients, this was going to take too long. They didn’t have time to spare, not with the egg dying as they stood there.

Fortunately, their comrade returned less than a minute later looking pale as she cradled her injured hand.

“Did you find someone?” Ellis inquired.

Rayla shook her head. “No, there was no one there. We have to get moving.”

They all shared a look, jogging to catch up with her. “Rayla, it looks like you’ve seen a ghost. What happened?” Trezac questioned.

“Yeah,” Callum agreed, “Are you alright? You seem pretty shaken.”

Rayla sighed turning to look at them, “It was barely alive, crumbled to dust right before my eyes. It was horrible.”

A scream came from the back of the group and the two fighters pulled their weapons out as Ezran scampered towards them. “Ez, what’s wrong?”

“I…I saw something…a face in the dark,” he pointed to the shadows.

Creeping over, the three older members of the group peered in, using the light from Trezac’s lightsabers to try to see what startled the boy. “Something doesn’t feel right,” Trezac murmured.

“I fell like we’re being watched,” Rayla agreed.

“..If…if you guys wanna turn back—” Ellis started before Callum cut her off.

“There’s no turning back,” he said. “We have to keep going, the egg doesn’t have much time.”

“Rayla, you take the front I take the back?” Trezac spoke up.

“Your swords give off light, might be better if you were in the front so we can see where we’re going.”

Giving a nod, Trezac took the lead, illuminating the path with a dull yellow glow. “Alright, it’s gonna be a little tight from here.” He strode forwards, using the force to push thick branches out of their way. As they moved forwards, they could all begin to see something big blocking their path.

“What is this?” Callum questioned.

“Looks like some sort of web,” Ezran answered.

“Can you guys cut through it?”

Trezac began to raise his saber when Rayla stopped him, looking wary. “I don’t think that’s a good idea. We should go around.”

Trezac raised a brow, looking at the girl. Just like earlier, she seemed to have gone pale, seeming afraid. He looked back to the webs frowning; did the webs have something to do with what frightened her earlier? If that was the case, he’d have to take her word for it. “Alright,” he nodded. “Agir.”

The little fox perked up, wagging his tail before running up and down the length of the block, sniffing curiously. He did this several times before returning with a whimper, resting his head on Trezac’s shoe.

“I take that as there isn’t an around,” Callum muttered as Trezac knelt down to reassure his pet, “We need to punch through.”

Rayla grimaced, reached out with her sword and pulling away, some webbing wrapped around it. “This is pretty thick webbing, my swords might get stuck. Trezac, your swords are sunforged blades, think you got this?”

“Lightsabers, not sunforged blades,” he corrected activating the second one as he stood up and walked to the web wall. Swinging his sabers, they all wrinkled their noses at the smell of burning webs as he cut their path open. “Let’s find out what made this mess.”

“And don’t touch the webs,” Rayla warned holding her swords up as they crept forwards.

“Ugh, they’re everywhere,” Ezran groaned getting some in his hair. “It’s too dark, even with Trezac’s glowy-swords.”

“Like I said earlier, something’s here,” he repeated, “something strong in the force.”

“You think this thing has been what’s been watching us?” Callum asked.

“It has to be,” Rayla growled. “Nothing safe would make these,” she sliced through a small web in their way, “whatever did this is dangerous, and very big.”

Several of them gulped at that thoughts, going quiet as the cautiously continued forwards. It was then they could hear the soft clicking of something behind them. As they turned, Ezran screamed at the sight of the giant spider crawling behind them.

“What is that?!”

“Holy shit!”

Callum raced to the back of the group, holding out his Primal Stone, “Fulminis!” he exclaimed drawing the run in the air. The crack of lightning striking echoed around them, and the spider appeared to burst, sending Callum into a panic. “Ah! Did I get it? Where’d it go? Ew! It feels like it’s in my hair!”

“It’s a two-ton magical spider, you’d know if it were in your hair,” Rayla deadpanned.

“Then, if it’s not dead, where did it go?!” Trezac reminded and at all pressed back to back, looking around.

Soft clicks came from above, and all of them silently cursed as they looked up. And, sure enough, there stood the spider on the webs directly above them. It gave a hiss, jumping towards them, causing Trezac to use the force in an attempt to push it back. Only, it had no effect as the beast kept coming towards them. With loud screams, they scrambled up a nearby slope, hiding behind some trees listening as they heard it continue to patrol the area.

“How are we going to get past that thing?” Callum panted.

“I don’t know,” Trezac bit his lip, “the force had no effects on it. It was like I was trying to push a hologram!”

“Even if we managed to get past, one wrong step and were caught in those webs,” Rayla reminded looking grim, “and trust me, you don’t want to know what happens if you get caught in a web.”

“There has to be a way. We have to get through!”

As they argued, Ezran peered over the rocks looking at the spide. It crawled back up onto the webs, looking in their direction before giving another chitter. “Wait a second…” he murmured looking at it as it continued to chitter, “something’s not right…in a good way this time!”

“Huh?”

-.-

“You know, there’s something so invigorating about climbing a mountain at midnight. The moonlight, the clouds, the fresh air,” Soren rambled on taking a deep breath before coughing. “Ahh! Claudia! I think you horse just—”

“Wasn’t the horse,” his sister sang and the boy looked annoyed.

“To be honest I am disgusted, and a little impressed,” Soren said as they rode on.

Behind them, the Twelfth brother crouched in the shadows, narrowing his eyes. Honestly, how foolish could these two idiots be? If it wasn’t for the fact he didn’t know this infernal planet, he would’ve captured the princes and the traitor by now.

But no matter, all he had to do was wait. They’d lead him to the targets, he just needed to be patient.

-.-

“What should we do? We could turn back and try to find another way up the Caldera,” Ellis offered.

Ezran chuckled, emerging from his hiding spot, “No, it’s going to be ok. We can just walk right past it.”

“What are you talking about?”

“It’s not real, I’m sure of it,” he answered.

“That doesn’t make any sense,” Rayla muttered.

“Where’s your proof?”

“The chitters and screams don’t make sense,” Ezran replied as if that explained everything. “That’s not how spiders talk.”

“Ok, it’s official,” Callum sighed, “Ez, you’ve lost your mind.”

“No I haven’t, and I’m gonna prove it,” the boy exclaimed racing down the path.

“Ezran!” Callum exclaimed with Rayla and Ellis on his heels.

Trezac ran a hand down his face, “I’m gonna die, surrounded by the biggest idiots in the galaxy.” Sighing, he ran after them, jumping over larger rocks to get down the slope faster. His eyes widened in horror as he saw the massive monster leap down and roar at Ezran.

The sheer force of its cry caused the boy to almost fall over, but when it finished, Ezran just stood there and screamed back at it. The spider tilted its head, before releasing another cry in Ezran’s face, but it still made no move to attack as Ezran once again yelled at it.

With a laugh, the boy turned to look at them all, “Try screaming at him! It’s fun!”

Callum inched forwards, stretching out his hand. The beast gave another call, causing him to take a few steps back, yet, like the same times before, it did nothing.

“See, it won’t do anything.”

“You’re right…”

“Let’s see if we can get it to turn around and show us its creepy glow-face,” Ezran smiled making a face at the monster.

“Ezran, I owe you an apology,” Callum said.

“Well at least one.”

“I’m sorry I didn’t believe you. I promise, I won’t ever doubt you again.”

“If you really mean it…”

“I do.”

Ezran smirked, “Then you have to do the thing.”

Callum’s eyes widened in horror. “Here? Now?”

The boy’s grin only grew wider as he nodded. Callum took a deep breath of defeat, then proceeded to do one of the strangest things Trezac’s ever seen in his entire life. “Callum’s famous jerkface dance!” Ezran laughed.

For once in his life, Trezac was at a loss for words at that.

“So…if it’s fake, what’s it doing here?” Rayla inquired looking at the spider.

“Cheering for the jerkface dance, I think,” Ezran answered. “It wants more. Knees higher! Knees higher!”

“That doesn’t answer the question,” Trezac mumbled turning to walk up the slope as the others followed behind, Callum dancing on behind them.


	14. Into the Storm

Chapter 14

**A/N: hey y’all, welcome back for another chapter of the story. Remember, I’m just the writer!**

“This is it!” Ellis exclaimed pointing to a massive tree just ahead. “We hid in that three when the miracle healer found us!” Ducking inside, the girl pet her wolf, “Remember this place girl?” Ava gave a short bark, laying down panting as they all filed inside.

“So now what?”

“Uh, Miracle Healer?!” Callum yelled up into the hallow tree. “Hello! We’re here!”

“I don’t know. I just showed up and then she just showed up.”

“Don’t see why that shouldn’t work,” Trezac deadpanned.

Light began to filter in through the hole they cam through. Looking at each other, the group filed out, looking up as the moon began to glow. “I think it is working,” Rayla commented.

The light got brighter, and they could see something approaching. The call of a bird echoed over them and the large shadow landed revealing a glowing blue bird and an elvish woman.

“Oh no!” Rayla gasped. “Ez was right about everything. There’s no miracle healer, she’s a fake!”

“What?”

“How do you know?” Callum asked.

“She’s a moon mage, an illusionist. She can’t heal anything.”

“It’s true,” the elf spoke up, “I am no healer. I am Lujanne. Guardian of the Moon Nexus.”

“I’m such an idiot, I should’ve figured it out, none of those monsters were real, they were all illusions.”

“Yes,” she confirmed. “They were just to scare you. That’s how I protect the Nexus.”

“But…I don’t understand,” Ellis voiced, looking confused as her hand gripped Ava’s fur. “If you’re not a healer, how did you save Ava’s leg?”

Lujanne knelt in front of them, gently scratching under Ava’s chin, “I remember you and that little cub, both so frightened and sad. I saw she had lost her leg and I understood humans would have trouble accepting her. But I knew her spirit was strong and that was all that really mattered. To help you, I created an illusion,” she placed her hand on the jewel hanging from Ava’s collar. “A leg that others would see and feel even though it wasn’t real. I enchanted the moonstone collar to hold the spell. She never needed that fourth leg to be happy; everyone else did.” Removing the collar, they all watched the illusion fall away.

“But the help we need is real,” Ezran spoke up biting his lip, “an illusion won’t help us.” Stepping forwards, he pulled his bag around and undid the latch, revealing the dimly glowing egg within.

The elf gasped, looking grim. “It’s the egg of the Dragon Prince,” Rayla continued. “It was stolen but we saved it—I mean, we were trying to save it and return it to its mother. But there was a terrible accident. You see I—”

Lujanne raised her hand, cutting the younger elf off as she leaned forwards. She reached out a hand, going silent for a moment before a shadow crossed over her face as she closed her eyes. “Its life is fading quickly. I’m afraid the only way to save it now is to hatch it…but…but that won’t be possible,” she looked up to the clear night skies, “Sky Dragons can only be born in the eye of a storm; the weather’s clear for miles.”

“No, that can’t be it,” Ezran pleaded. “There has to be a way to save it!”

“I’m sorry,” Lujanne whispered as they all watched the glow practically fizzle out.

“No…”

Rayla closed her eyes, looking away. “I dropped it. This is all my fault.”

“No, I should’ve trusted you,” Callum reassured. “Things only went wrong cause we kept fighting.”

Rayla shook her head, tears trailing down her cheeks, “I let you both down. I let the world down.”

“You tried Rayla,” Ezran sniffed hugging her, “you’re so good and brave.”

“There has to be another way,” Trezac said looking towards the elf.

“There isn’t, like I said, Sky Dragons can only be born in a storm.”

Callum’s eyes widened, “Wait…” reaching into his satchel he pulled out the Primal Stone, “a Storm…What if I—I know what to do.” All eyes turned towards Callum in surprise as he raised the Primal Stone and smashed it against the ground. Lightning crackled and thunder roared over them, shaking the mountain as the storm was unleashed. The moonlight began to fade away as clouds began to circle overhead, causing a cold breeze to wash over them. Those breezes only grew in strength, forcing everyone to duck down close to the ground as the winds began to try to push them back. A strong gust nearly made their grip slip, and, to their horror, the egg began to roll out of the bag.

“NO!” Ezran shouted, his voice barely audible over the storm.

Rayla was the first to react. Forcing herself to her feet, she raced against the winds and chased after the egg. It continued its roll towards the cliff, and she barely reached it in time before it went careening over the edge. Rolling onto her stomach, she struggled to push against the winds as they attempted to drive her over the edge.

However, it wasn’t long before something started pulling her towards the others. Eyes widening, her gaze landed on Trezac as he stretched his ands out, clearly trying to use his magic to pull her and the egg back over away from the edge. A stick slammed into her injured arm and she cried out, trying to keep her hold on the egg as agony pulsed through her. Through the pain, she could dimly make out the face that she now seemed to be facing the ground, as if she was being sucked into the air. Tilting her head down, she was proven right, a cyclone had formed around them, sucking the air up into the atmosphere, trying to take her and the egg with it. Trezac was keeping hold so far, but even she could see him struggling against the winds, his balance faltering with each gust threatening to knock hurl her off the mountain.

But, the good news was, with the cyclone forming, it meant the eye of the storm was about to come. Soon the struggle would be over and done with and they’d be out of the danger.

The winds trying to pull her up slowly died down, and Rayla sighed, hugging the egg close as she landed on her knees. Looking up, she saw stars and moonlight shining through as the cyclone still light with lightning and roar with thunder around them. They were safe in the eye.

A slight tingle ran through her body, and she looked down, watching as small tendrils of lightning began to arch over the eggshell. Eyes widening, she set the egg down, stumbling back as more lightning began to strike and the egg began to retain its glow. Colorful light permeated the air and they could all see the egg rising up from the ground as it began to glow brighter. A large arch of lightning shot out and they could see glowing cracks along the shell.

However, a dark egg still fell to the ground once the show was over, small bits of smoke rising up from it as the storm began to dissipate.

“No…” Rayla whispered feeling her world drop out from under her. They’d been so, _so_ close! They had the egg, they had the storm, why didn’t it work?!

Trezac meanwhile closed his eyes, reaching out in an effort to pray they were wrong and that they hadn’t failed. Something strong brushed against his own energy, making the padawan frown. It definitely didn’t feel like the others so what… “It’s alive!” he exclaimed right as they all heard the first crack.

They all looked down in hope as they watched cracks spreading across the dark shell, and a small piece fell away, revealing a closed scaly eye. The hatchling lifted his head with a little yawn, taking his first breath of fresh air as the shell fell away. He stumbled to his feet, the dragonling’s legs barely seeming able to support the newborn’s body as he stumbled over himself.

“Come on Bait! Help him! His eyes are stuck,” Ezran encouraged setting his pet down in front of the hatchling. “You need to lick them open!” The glowtoad gave his master a glare before turning back to the hatchling turning to a shade a purple to express his displeasure. The long tongue shot out, quickly licking the hatchlings eyes open so he could see the world.

Wide blue eyes opened and the small creature gave an inquisitive yip, jumping on Bait and licking him before he hopped off, stumbling into Ezran’s arms.

“You already know your own name! Azymondias!” Ezran grinned hugging the newborn close. “We’ll call you Zym. That’s Rayla,” he pointed to the elf, “You almost blew off the mountain, but Rayla saved you, with Trezac’s help. He’s over there!”

Zym perked up, turning around and hopping over to Rayla giving her injured hand a few soft licks. “Aw, it’s ok little one,” she cooed. “The important thing is you. One miracle is enough for me today.”

With a chitter, Zym tilted his head looking at the binding. Sniffing it curiously, the hatchling bit down on the fabric, pulling on it till they all heard a snap as Zym was sent rolling back into Ezran and Callum, a silver binding in his jaws.

They all sat down, eager to get some rest as Zym stretched his legs, bounding between all of them. Violet light began to fill the sky and they all turned looking to see what appeared to be a comet or shooting star of some sort flying overhead.

Like a firework, it burst above them, releasing small little glowing orbs down to the ground.

“It’s beautiful,” Callum admired.

Rayla smiled reaching out a hand an catching one. “They’re gentle. They even tickle a little,” she chuckled gently bowing it away.

Trezac on the other hand, felt the need to pull away from these things as they floated towards him. Something about them felt…wrong—almost violated. His gaze trailed up over the sky, following the glowing violet path to a peak rising miles away. And all he could feel was dread as he swore he heard something whispered on the wind.

_“They’re coming.”_


End file.
